I Turned THESE One Time Jobs Into Recurring Revenue

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Today I'm talking to over 40 home service business owners that are trying to grow past a million dollars in annual revenue.
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We're going to be talking about how to switch from one time projects into recurring work.
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We're going to go upsells and the process of handing off all your admin tasks so you can get off the truck and focus on sales.
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There's a bunch of questions, a lot of rider downers, a lot of good gold nuggets.
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So without any further delay, let's jump right in.
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Hey, thanks.
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Thanks for doing this, Mike.
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I really appreciate it.
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Yeah, so I'm planning for 2026.
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We did roughly 300K last year and 30% of that was gutter cleaning.
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I really want, I'm really trying to come up with a way to get my clients on recurring gutter cleaning.
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And then maybe splashing some window cleaning in there eventually, but I want to keep it super simple in order to get.
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you know, the foundation set for the gutter cleaning and get my myself comfortable with selling that and getting everybody on a recurring schedule.
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We had a 60% close rate last year and we, we were charging roughly 145 an hour.
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I'm looking at maybe trying to bump that up to close to 155, 165 per man hour this year.
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How would you structure this as a whole?
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Yeah.
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So right now when you're doing your pricing, how are you giving the prices?
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Are you saying, hey, it's an hourly rate?
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Are you giving it based upon like the size of the house?
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How are you doing it?
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So then that's kind of what I'm in the middle of right now as well.
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I've downloaded a CSV file of my client's home address and then the charge that they were given for the gutter cleaning.
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And I'm trying to simplify and standardize.
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how we're quoting these homes.
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I want to kind of base it off of square footage at this point in my average price per square foot.
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Okay.
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And if you had to give me a range, what would 80% of the gutter cleanings fall in terms of prices like 80%.
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So cut the bottom 10%, the top 10%, but like, what would the middle 80% be?
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I will tell you that our average gutter cleaning last year was $360.
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When you said that, when you go back, when you were giving the prices, were you saying, hey, this is our $145 per hour?
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Or were you saying package pricing?
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So basically, I didn't give them an hourly rate.
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I didn't tell them how long we were going to be on job.
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I just said, hey, let's just say it's $300 for your gutter cleaning.
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Got it.
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And that was based upon just like asking them a couple questions.
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Yeah.
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And I was doing a lot of in-person estimates last year, but this year I'm looking to simplify that as well and do a lot of over the phone estimates.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So like, I think, especially when it comes to gutters, you have not a ton of equipment typically.
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And so you can get away with really doing like a small, medium and large.
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So like when we add instant quotes to homeworks later this year, I would highly recommend using it for the service.
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You will crush and you'll be able to charge a higher price because people like in general, there are, and I'm sure you know this, like when you say $300 to clean up some gutters, some people freak out and think that's nuts.
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Other people are like,
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Oh, that's awesome.
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Cool.
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Yeah.
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When can you get on the schedule?
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And so you will get all of the latter with instant quotes.
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And you won't even have to like really like think about raising your prices as much as like just packaging of that better.
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I would also say, Toby, like a big thing with gutters when it comes to clean outs is the upsells.
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Do you have a kind of other ancillary stuff that you sell?
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So that's, yes, exactly.
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We are a pressure washing company as well.
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But I know that everyone needs gutter cleaning and we do exterior window cleaning as well.
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That's not necessarily a necessity.
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However, people love that, right?
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So really gutter cleaning is our necessary service.
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And then, you know, the other services are just kind of as needed.
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Yeah, one thing that I see being really successful, I just talked to a company out in New Jersey, they do about 1.5 doing gutters, just cleaning.
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And so one thing I'd recommend and pushing them to do is like basically just have a small and large in terms of pricing.
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So if your average was 360, it's very possible you get most of your customers to fall into like a 199 or a 399.
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I'm just making that number up.
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But, but, and then that way you can very quickly over the phone or even on your website, be able to qualify them in terms of which one of those they are.
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But then incentivize your crew on site around all the different upsells that they can do on site.
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For example, they show up for one 99 and they leave that place with a thousand dollars because they're like, Oh, well, while we're here, would you like us to do the downspouts?
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Would you like us to go ahead and do some moss removal treatment?
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Would you like us to go ahead and do the pressure washing?
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So like, I would really, really bake that in as your entry level service to be able to upsell them five other things.
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Awesome.
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Yeah, because we're on the same page because that's the goal.
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And I've already created like a pricing sheet for when they do see something on site.
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It just basically our hourly rate times, however long they think it's going to take.
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Yep.
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Yeah, 100%.
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Like everyone always begs on Augusta because when we become a new market, we go pretty low on price.
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But what we fail to realize is like, if I make $800 a year from mowing, whoop-de-doo, I'm trying to make $2,000 or $3,000 on higher margin services.
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I would look at the gutters as an entry level.
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Everyone needs it.
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And then I'd be trying to give them five other things while you're on site.
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They like your guys, you're professional.
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You give the guys a cut of whatever they sell on site.
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So they're super incentivized.
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Sounds good, Mike.
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Thank you.
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You got it.
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Michael, you're up.
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Hey, Mike.
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Good to see you.
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So I am a new business.
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I started in November.
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Obviously, we get snowing in Regina.
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Yeah.
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So I'm just trying to prepare marketing for the spring rush.
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So I'm just kind of wondering what your thoughts on, like, basically just trying to canvas, like, the entire areas that I'm wanting to service.
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I'm getting the truck deckled.
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I'm going to get, you know, those portable billboard signs that you can get, like, graphics on and stuff like that.
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I'm going to get three of those put out planning on doing like 5,000 door hangers and then a hundred yard signs.
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And like, that's basically the extent I'm trying to do it mostly physical instead of digital.
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I don't really want to screw around with figuring out Facebook ads at the moment.
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I'm just kind of wondering like what your thoughts on that, or if you could add anything to that.
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Yeah, the two things is you're basically going to your testing phase.
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And so all these things that you're trying, just make sure that you're asking every customer where they're coming from.
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Because given the fact that you're doing all these at the same time, it's very difficult to attribute where leads are coming from.
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So you have to ask customers.
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And also, as an asterisk, keep in mind, they might have called because of the yard sign, but they saw your trucks 10 times.
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Yeah.
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And so just keep that as an asterisk.
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But you'll need to know where these leads are coming from because you're running everything at the same time.
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And then also, as a side note, any dollar you spend will become much more effective if your website looks good because they're all going to still go to your website.
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They see the yard sign, they search you.
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They see your truck, they search you.
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They see a door hanger, they're still going to go search you.
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So just make sure your website, if you do spend a dollar on anything digital, do it on your website first because it will compound to your print marketing.
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Okay.
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Yeah, I still, I, my website, like I just built it maybe like three or four months ago.
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So I still need to steadily improve it, like with photos and things like that.
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That's kind of why I don't want to do digital.
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Cause I know it's like not up to snuff, but it's good enough for a landing page.
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Basically 80% will still go to your, even from print, will still go to your website.
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Just keep that in mind.
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So like people don't, don't look at your truck and copy the phone number.
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They look at your truck, they see the name of the business and they go search it on Google.
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Okay.
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Obviously I'm just trying to build up Google reviews and stuff like that.
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Um, for snow removal, is there a world where you can do budgeted hours for snow removal?
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Or is it kind of like just a thing where you just kind of got to track it over a few seasons and then like kind of see where certain size properties land?
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You'll only get accurate budget hours based upon like either time motion studies or just tracking over the course of time.
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Most of the time with snow, the challenging part is your budget hours vary based upon the depth of the snow, as well as if it's wet, if it's dry, like the wind.
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Like there's so many variables.
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So most people have a pretty general idea of budgeted hours based upon snow depth.
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But again...
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Every single equipment setup totally will change that.
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Like whether you have a back blade, a front blade, a V plow, like it just goes, there's so many variables.
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So the main thing is doing that, getting the rep so that you can actually compare budget hours versus actual hours.
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And then how deep was the snow over the course of time?
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You'll have a pretty good idea, though, based upon that information, how long jobs should take.
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Okay.
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Okay, perfect.
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Is there any way that you could ever do paper performance on snow or is it just kind of more like it's too variable?
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Yeah, great question.
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I'm actually having a call with Stefano Narducci up in Ontario next week because he wants to do P4P at his place.
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The reason it's nice with P4P is you can try to get around the whole...
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problem with keeping people on salary for the entire snow season, right?
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Because it just kills their margins.
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The challenging part, though, with P4P is you're incentivizing speed a lot.
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And so you have to really crack down on quality because one damage case with snow could be a $50,000 mistake.
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If they make a mistake on mowing grass, it's like, OK, we put some seed down.
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Whoop-de-doo.
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So you've got to be really, really careful with incentivizing speed when it comes to snow because you're putting people's lives at danger and, like, much bigger damage cases.
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And so I would just really – it depends on, like, your setup, how much equipment you have going on, what kind of properties you're doing, as to whether or not I would even do P4P.
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So, like, the one time – we used to not do P4P.
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We don't do this anymore.
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But back in the day when we first started P4P, the one service I didn't do P4P was snow plowing because we did border patrol facilities.
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And –
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Like there's no way I'm going to allow my crew to be doing snow plowing around some of that equipment trying to go fast.
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Now, that being said, if you have big open commercial shopping centers, let's go put those bad boys on P4P.
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I don't really care about them going quicker with the equipment, but be very careful with P4P and snow because your cost of damages is significantly higher.
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Okay, excellent.
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Thanks, Mike.
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Yep.
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Eddie, you're up.
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Glad to be here.
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Just signed up today.
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Thanks for having me.
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Question about whether I should enter growth or profit mode.
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I'm at a point we just sold 300,000 in sales last year.
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A third was profit.
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I feel like I should add another unit to the fleet.
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I have two currently.
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Profit for lawns have been decent.
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landscaping projects, much more profit from.
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So maybe within the 10 to 20% range for lawns, but way more for landscaping, like I said, but I was also in the field working.
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So I was making more because I was actually on the landscape jobs, more than cutting grass.
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We did 160 lawns on average.
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We did anywhere between two to four landscape projects on the side.
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I think I have room to raise profits, but I really feel like I should try and grow some more and add more work.
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I wonder what you think.
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Yeah, so you're under capacity because you're assets.
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Do you do one-man or two-man crews?
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One crew of two and then another crew of two, but I was also in that.
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So it'd be a crew of three.
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The crew of three would mow two days a week and landscape three.
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Cool.
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And then you have three trucks?
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Two.
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Oh, you have two trucks.
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Okay, then I apologize.
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I heard three.
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My apologies.
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So do you mind – how much cash do you have on hand?
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$100,000.
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Okay, so you want to go in growth mode.
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Because right now you're the tail end, the back end of the solo operator size, and you're in the working GM.
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You're out in the field, you're managing the team, but you're still out in the field working.
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I want you to get about $500,000.
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Then we think about profit mode.
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So if you read the book, we always get past $500,000 first because now – and this is the thing.
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This is why most people at your size will go focus on projects because you are making twice as much profit, like 30% versus 15% or 10%, right?
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The difference is with projects, I don't have them recurring and stacking on top of each other.
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When you go into profit mode, you will raise your prices by at least 20%, and immediately you take a 10% profit margin job to 30%.
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And so most people never get to profit mode, so they never think that the recurring work actually pays them anything.
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And so I would still focus on that recurring revenue because that's the thing that when you hit $500,000, you pull one lever and make $100,000 extra a year.
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And that's the money that you use for a general manager or someone else to help with management.
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You can't do that with projects because you're always in the hunt for the next project.
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Right.
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So I would still keep doing what you're doing.
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Just don't lose faith in the recurring side.
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$160,000 is good.
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And I would just say the only reason I would be telling you at $300,000 to go into profit mode is if you were cash constrained.
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Right.
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With a hundred grand, you absolutely can get another truck, a couple more employees, get past $500,000 this year, go into next spring rush, raise prices by 20% on let's call it 220 to 250 lawns.
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And all of a sudden draw an extra 10 to $15,000 in straight profit to the bottom line of that.
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00:12:31.028 --> 00:12:31.228
Yeah.
217
00:12:31.468 --> 00:12:34.551
So the next step is to get the lawns is to get a more recurring work.
218
00:12:35.011 --> 00:12:41.116
I have a competitor across the street from me who I actually used to work for growing up and he is pretty big at my market as well.
219
00:12:41.136 --> 00:12:43.458
We're about even I'd say, and there's another.
220
00:12:43.658 --> 00:12:48.084
other company that's also very close, vocally wise, who is about triple us.
221
00:12:48.284 --> 00:12:52.189
So I'm in a tight spot and I feel bad trying to compete against him.
222
00:12:52.329 --> 00:12:55.794
He's literally my neighbor, but do you have any tips on just,
223
00:12:56.378 --> 00:12:57.718
best way to get a new customer.
224
00:12:58.018 --> 00:12:58.378
Yeah.
225
00:12:58.718 --> 00:13:06.180
As much as you might like your competitors, the bottom line is most of your customers are going to come from an existing service.
226
00:13:06.760 --> 00:13:11.401
Everyone always does their advertising as if everyone has never used a service before.
227
00:13:12.041 --> 00:13:20.002
When the reality is when I'm, let's call it 50 years old and I have a bunch of money, I choose to go from me mowing my lawn to someone else mowing my lawn one time.
228
00:13:20.322 --> 00:13:24.523
And for the next 30 years of my life, I'm just trying to choose the best service.
229
00:13:25.423 --> 00:13:32.265
And so I would highly recommend for everyone to market in the way, which is going after existing customers of other companies.
230
00:13:32.565 --> 00:13:39.466
Now I'm not going to bash them, but I am going to speak to all the pain points they're experiencing in with the customer, my, my competitor service.
231
00:13:39.886 --> 00:13:40.047
Right.
232
00:13:40.067 --> 00:13:50.009
So like, this is why just having a great product works is because if you make sure that your, your trucks are wrapped, the guys are professional, you have automations, you answer the phone every single time.
233
00:13:50.609 --> 00:13:53.150
That's the thing that as to why they will leave someone else.
234
00:13:53.390 --> 00:13:53.670
Got it.
235
00:13:54.050 --> 00:13:54.210
Awesome.
236
00:13:54.230 --> 00:13:54.350
Yeah.
237
00:13:54.870 --> 00:13:56.371
As much as you might love the competitors.
238
00:13:56.851 --> 00:13:57.372
Yeah, I know.
239
00:13:57.552 --> 00:13:58.873
I don't because they're not on the call.
240
00:13:59.073 --> 00:13:59.613
I hate them.
241
00:13:59.873 --> 00:14:00.774
You're going to demolish them.
242
00:14:00.794 --> 00:14:01.755
You're going to crush them.
243
00:14:02.295 --> 00:14:08.119
But ultimately, you're just trying to do a better product and then pitch why you're better than everyone else without saying I'm better than everyone else.
244
00:14:08.519 --> 00:14:12.242
You're just going to say, here's what we do, and you know that they can't compete with that.
245
00:14:12.622 --> 00:14:12.842
Right.
246
00:14:13.002 --> 00:14:18.463
So for example, at Augusta, we're changing our website in two weeks and we're leaning into like two things that no one else can compete with.
247
00:14:18.503 --> 00:14:21.704
And that is like, we answer our phone every time guaranteed 24 seven.
248
00:14:22.184 --> 00:14:24.685
And we're backed by 200 locations nationally.
249
00:14:24.845 --> 00:14:25.605
No one can compete with that.
250
00:14:25.625 --> 00:14:30.866
And now there's going to be some people are turned off by the fact that we're like a national company, but I know that there's a 40% of the market that likes that.
251
00:14:31.286 --> 00:14:36.568
And they're willing to pay for a national brand that they can trust because they're tired of turning and burning through chucking the trucks.
252
00:14:37.008 --> 00:14:38.468
You've just got to figure out what your unique selling
253
00:14:42.689 --> 00:14:50.133
and then just blare that on your website because that's the reason people are leaving and that's how you'll get a lower customer acquisition cost because it just speaks to their need.
254
00:14:50.333 --> 00:14:50.573
Got it.
255
00:14:50.593 --> 00:14:51.874
I have one last question for you.
256
00:14:52.074 --> 00:14:54.675
Do you think it's time for me to step back from the work field?
257
00:14:55.015 --> 00:14:57.176
No, until you are over 500,000,
258
00:14:59.097 --> 00:15:00.559
you got to stay as a working GM.
259
00:15:00.819 --> 00:15:03.041
And that is you out in the field producing revenue.
260
00:15:03.361 --> 00:15:16.273
The difference between a $350,000 to $400,000 location that makes money and one that makes 30% profit and one that makes nothing is whether or not the owner, in your case, I call it working GM, is in the field working.
261
00:15:16.614 --> 00:15:22.679
Because if you took how much revenue you produced last year, which I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was over $100,000, if you take that out, the business makes no money.
262
00:15:22.939 --> 00:15:23.300
Correct.
263
00:15:23.700 --> 00:15:23.860
Right?
264
00:15:24.040 --> 00:15:26.422
So focus on growth, get the business over 500,000.
265
00:15:26.942 --> 00:15:30.685
And now you focusing on sales might get to 800,000 or a million.
266
00:15:31.266 --> 00:15:31.846
Then we're good.
267
00:15:32.266 --> 00:15:35.989
That's when you go into the full time GM mode, where you're over 750,000.
268
00:15:36.129 --> 00:15:36.369
Okay.
269
00:15:37.250 --> 00:15:38.611
But you won't be 30% profit tomorrow.
270
00:15:38.651 --> 00:15:40.472
You're like, I'm going to go work on sales only.
271
00:15:40.833 --> 00:15:41.933
You just wiped out all your profit.
272
00:15:42.234 --> 00:15:42.974
Don't split it.
273
00:15:43.054 --> 00:15:43.395
Stay in.
274
00:15:43.715 --> 00:15:44.215
For now.
275
00:15:44.535 --> 00:15:46.157
Now you have a significant capital.
276
00:15:46.337 --> 00:15:48.098
There's a really good chance that you hit the spring rush.
277
00:15:48.258 --> 00:15:52.481
You get one or two more trucks, a few employees, and your run rate is now 60, 70,000 a month.
278
00:15:53.622 --> 00:15:58.966
and a lot of it's recurring, especially if it's a lot of recurring, then I might give you the green light to go, okay, I'm going to focus on sales.
279
00:15:59.046 --> 00:15:59.867
I'm going for the moon.
280
00:15:59.887 --> 00:16:01.288
You have enough capital to do that.
281
00:16:01.528 --> 00:16:05.632
Well, I guess I'll be in another meeting later on to see if that's the right time.
282
00:16:05.692 --> 00:16:06.352
Drew, you're up.
283
00:16:06.492 --> 00:16:08.594
So we did half a million last year.
284
00:16:08.614 --> 00:16:13.118
We are a general contracting business, specializing in a lot of flat work and concrete work.
285
00:16:13.798 --> 00:16:19.383
Just so I'm clear, Drew, the contracting, is that 500,000 to you or is that top line to contractors?
286
00:16:19.403 --> 00:16:19.623
Yeah.
287
00:16:19.843 --> 00:16:22.644
That is net revenue of the business.
288
00:16:22.664 --> 00:16:23.724
Thank you.
289
00:16:23.844 --> 00:16:24.745
Yeah.
290
00:16:24.865 --> 00:16:26.145
I still have not paid myself.
291
00:16:27.085 --> 00:16:28.986
So I'm working GM, just like Michael.
292
00:16:29.346 --> 00:16:31.967
Very similar situation, trying to scale the business.
293
00:16:32.567 --> 00:16:37.329
But my question to you is, I am really struggling to hire a foreman.
294
00:16:37.869 --> 00:16:41.471
and someone that can lead these crews and lead these jobs.
295
00:16:42.171 --> 00:16:44.252
And, you know, I want to buy two trucks.
296
00:16:44.393 --> 00:16:45.213
I want to get crews.
297
00:16:45.493 --> 00:16:53.197
And something I didn't mention is I work for general contractors doing between 1 million and some doing 20 million a year.
298
00:16:53.857 --> 00:16:56.779
So there is no problem with influx of work.
299
00:16:57.719 --> 00:17:04.103
You know, obviously they take their 10 to 30% cut, you know, for marketing and collections and escalations and all that stuff.
300
00:17:04.123 --> 00:17:04.223
Yeah.
301
00:17:05.106 --> 00:17:08.127
But I guess my question right now is just, I need help hiring.
302
00:17:08.447 --> 00:17:09.408
Where do I go for that?
303
00:17:09.768 --> 00:17:10.728
Where do you go for that?
304
00:17:10.988 --> 00:17:17.511
First off in the 4L framework, because leads are quote unquote not a problem, almost always the next problem becomes labor, right?
305
00:17:17.531 --> 00:17:19.292
So you have plenty of demand, not enough supply.
306
00:17:19.612 --> 00:17:24.734
This just becomes a question like, the thing that gets you from 500,000 to 3 million is gonna be solving that constraint.
307
00:17:24.954 --> 00:17:26.015
How do you find great laborers?
308
00:17:26.855 --> 00:17:35.681
And when you're going after a foreman that's going to potentially do $500,000 in revenue or manage that much revenue, for example, you have some spending power.
309
00:17:35.781 --> 00:17:38.703
Like if you don't mind me asking, what's their salary going to be usually?
310
00:17:38.904 --> 00:17:40.024
$30 to $40 an hour.
311
00:17:40.064 --> 00:17:44.928
I'm willing to pay $40 an hour for someone that can absolutely kill it in the field and not make mistakes.
312
00:17:45.693 --> 00:17:50.516
Yeah, so like we use SparkHire, but I would highly recommend some sort of video application.
313
00:17:50.917 --> 00:17:55.080
Once you're above about $40 an hour, you can recruit people in.
314
00:17:55.940 --> 00:18:00.724
So you've been maybe marketing to your local area, but for $40 an hour, people will move.
315
00:18:01.524 --> 00:18:04.807
And you're willing to pay $3,000 to relocate someone from anywhere.
316
00:18:05.907 --> 00:18:07.328
to be able to move them in.
317
00:18:07.348 --> 00:18:12.731
So we just did a national job hiring thing for general managers.
318
00:18:13.111 --> 00:18:17.153
70,000 was the base salary plus incentives, but like 70,000 base.
319
00:18:17.613 --> 00:18:29.559
And we got 1700 applications and we used then, that was Indeed, and then we used SparkHire as a way to be able to filter out all those, the 98% of people that we aren't good.
320
00:18:29.979 --> 00:18:34.482
And then we took the 2% and then we were able to see everything and then categorize the top 50 for all the owners.
321
00:18:35.082 --> 00:18:49.308
And so whether you use Spark, Spark is a little pricey, but like some sort of video application process, then you can increase the size of your funnel to not just be your local area, but rather your whole state or even three or four states around you.
322
00:18:50.392 --> 00:18:53.816
you will get flooded with applications this time of year, like flooded.
323
00:18:54.217 --> 00:18:57.541
And then you've got to have a mechanism to weed out 98% of people.
324
00:18:57.821 --> 00:19:03.889
Yeah, I mean, you have to get good quality leads and then qualifying questions just to make sure that you know who you're hiring.
325
00:19:04.169 --> 00:19:05.050
Yeah, I get what you're saying.
326
00:19:06.452 --> 00:19:08.414
Okay, yeah, I'll look into SparkHire for sure.
327
00:19:08.955 --> 00:19:13.099
Yeah, like their base package is $2.99 a month, so it's not cheap.
328
00:19:13.159 --> 00:19:21.207
We do the higher one, like it's where it's $4.99 a month, but we use it like for – we don't allow in-person interviews without that video process being done.
329
00:19:21.888 --> 00:19:26.592
And so – but even if you got it for a few months while you needed to get a couple people, for example, and then you could bail on it.
330
00:19:26.632 --> 00:19:27.613
So it might be $600 cost, you know?
331
00:19:28.847 --> 00:19:29.107
Yeah.
332
00:19:29.387 --> 00:19:29.728
Thank you.
333
00:19:29.988 --> 00:19:30.268
Thank you.
334
00:19:30.308 --> 00:19:30.828
That was helpful.
335
00:19:30.988 --> 00:19:31.268
You got it.
336
00:19:31.789 --> 00:19:33.690
Leonardo, you're up.
337
00:19:33.790 --> 00:19:34.651
Hey, how are you?
338
00:19:35.011 --> 00:19:36.011
So I want to get straight to it.
339
00:19:36.031 --> 00:19:38.313
I have a lot of questions to ask, but I'm going to start with one.
340
00:19:38.333 --> 00:19:44.176
So my main question is how to charge more, because we have a lot of lawns.
341
00:19:44.356 --> 00:19:50.980
We do lawn care, so we have a lot of lawns that are priced between $55, $60, $70, and they should be priced between like the $80, $90, $100 range, but...
342
00:19:52.181 --> 00:19:55.784
We're kind of scared to charge the clients more because we feel like they're going to leave us.
343
00:19:55.804 --> 00:19:57.185
Do you have any proof that they're going to leave you?
344
00:19:57.345 --> 00:19:58.265
No, we don't have any proof.
345
00:19:58.325 --> 00:20:02.008
But I feel like if I tell my dad, hey, this is my dad's business.
346
00:20:02.028 --> 00:20:03.809
Okay, that's what I was looking for.
347
00:20:03.869 --> 00:20:04.550
Okay, that makes sense.
348
00:20:04.570 --> 00:20:05.851
So I'm doing all the admin work.
349
00:20:05.891 --> 00:20:08.833
So it's only four of us, me, my dad, and two other guys.
350
00:20:08.873 --> 00:20:10.314
Those two other guys are the first.
351
00:20:10.834 --> 00:20:12.295
My dad doesn't know anything about business.
352
00:20:12.455 --> 00:20:14.836
All he knows is the work and he's really, really good at the work.
353
00:20:14.856 --> 00:20:17.438
So I'm trying to learn all the, I'm trying to learn a little bit of everything.
354
00:20:17.458 --> 00:20:21.540
The admin side, the actual labor side, you know, I'm trying to learn a little bit of everything.
355
00:20:21.560 --> 00:20:25.763
But my question is how to charge more without losing those clients.
356
00:20:26.423 --> 00:20:27.203
Cool.
357
00:20:27.283 --> 00:20:29.264
How many recurring customers do you have now, Leonardo?
358
00:20:29.884 --> 00:20:31.084
So right now we're in the off season.
359
00:20:31.104 --> 00:20:34.025
So we only have 30 reoccurring clients.
360
00:20:34.185 --> 00:20:37.606
But once the spring season comes back, we should have around 50 to 60.
361
00:20:37.766 --> 00:20:40.847
I'm assuming he's not really willing to grow a bunch.
362
00:20:41.027 --> 00:20:42.108
He just wants to make more money.
363
00:20:42.208 --> 00:20:43.208
What he wants is control.
364
00:20:43.228 --> 00:20:50.930
Because he told me he doesn't want to have 10, 15, 20 employees because the more employees you have, the harder it is to control them.
365
00:20:50.950 --> 00:20:51.731
That's just the truth.
366
00:20:52.131 --> 00:20:55.992
If you only keep it small, you can still have four employees and still make over 500 grand a year.
367
00:20:56.252 --> 00:20:57.173
Yeah, so he wants to make money.
368
00:20:57.513 --> 00:21:00.154
He doesn't want to grow top-line revenue to a million or anything like that.
369
00:21:00.174 --> 00:21:00.515
Okay, cool.
370
00:21:00.595 --> 00:21:01.035
Here's the thing.
371
00:21:01.335 --> 00:21:02.056
You're admin, right?
372
00:21:02.076 --> 00:21:04.397
You control all email, CRM, software.
373
00:21:04.417 --> 00:21:04.717
Cool.
374
00:21:04.917 --> 00:21:07.959
So I'm going to give you permission to raise prices on 10 people, okay?
375
00:21:08.279 --> 00:21:11.321
Because what we need to do is prove to him that people aren't going to leave, okay?
376
00:21:11.822 --> 00:21:17.705
Now, one or two of them are going to leave, but you're going to raise prices by a minimum of 15%, minimum, okay?
377
00:21:17.865 --> 00:21:23.929
Like, you could do this without him knowing, and he will never know because you answer the phones, you do the email, and you control the software.
378
00:21:24.129 --> 00:21:24.429
He knows.
379
00:21:24.469 --> 00:21:25.250
He gets all the checks.
380
00:21:25.270 --> 00:21:25.450
He knows.
381
00:21:25.450 --> 00:21:26.090
He does.
382
00:21:26.291 --> 00:21:27.031
He has Google Sheets.
383
00:21:27.051 --> 00:21:32.054
So since he doesn't really know how to use the computer, I mean, like a little whenever he receives a check, he goes to Google Sheets.
384
00:21:32.354 --> 00:21:33.555
He doesn't have to do anything fancy.
385
00:21:33.575 --> 00:21:34.916
Just clicks on the client's name.
386
00:21:35.376 --> 00:21:36.217
OK, January.
387
00:21:36.277 --> 00:21:37.518
OK, that was 280 bucks.
388
00:21:38.098 --> 00:21:38.958
Get him off of checks.
389
00:21:39.659 --> 00:21:40.760
He doesn't need to be doing checks.
390
00:21:40.840 --> 00:21:42.220
None of our clients want to pay online.
391
00:21:42.521 --> 00:21:45.542
I've already asked every single one of them, and a lot of them are against technology.
392
00:21:45.563 --> 00:21:47.043
No, I've done checks my whole life.
393
00:21:47.063 --> 00:21:48.124
None of them want to pay that fee.
394
00:21:48.204 --> 00:21:49.125
That's the problem, the fee.
395
00:21:49.645 --> 00:21:50.025
That's fine.
396
00:21:50.286 --> 00:21:51.187
So two things.
397
00:21:51.407 --> 00:21:52.488
One, you can eat the fee.
398
00:21:53.009 --> 00:21:53.970
They don't have to pay the fee.
399
00:21:55.691 --> 00:21:56.632
He doesn't want to eat the fee.
400
00:21:56.652 --> 00:21:57.253
That's the problem.
401
00:21:57.694 --> 00:21:58.935
Click a button and then they can pay it.
402
00:21:59.155 --> 00:22:00.076
Like the customer can pay it.
403
00:22:00.296 --> 00:22:05.622
Like ultimately all these problems that he's coming up with Leonardo is because you don't have enough customers.
404
00:22:05.822 --> 00:22:11.929
If you could only service, let's call it 60 or 70, and now you had 100, he would be begging for customers to leave.
405
00:22:12.765 --> 00:22:15.466
Well, we have, so here's the plan.
406
00:22:15.506 --> 00:22:19.228
So this summer right now, since it's four of us, we want to have one lawn care group.
407
00:22:19.668 --> 00:22:24.510
Okay, that one lawn care group is going to do the 50, 60 yards throughout the week, and that's going to keep them busy throughout the week.
408
00:22:24.730 --> 00:22:28.192
We also do a lot of landscape installation jobs, sod installation, irrigation.
409
00:22:28.912 --> 00:22:54.459
drainage work etc so we have two full-time crew we have two full-time crews if i'm there you know like we're we're too focused in the field like you know we need to step out of the field get into the sales process start doing more admin work like we're both too focused in the field that's what i've been trying to tell him and i've been trying to convince him but i don't feel like i feel like he doesn't listen to me because of my age because i'm 19 years old so because i haven't been able to prove myself he doesn't like really believe me you know
410
00:22:54.879 --> 00:22:57.580
Everything I would say from a business perspective, let's put on a shelf for a second.
411
00:22:57.820 --> 00:22:59.161
That's the real thing, right?
412
00:22:59.181 --> 00:23:02.382
Like you don't have any proof and that's fine, right?
413
00:23:02.662 --> 00:23:09.084
So I would not push on your dad given the fact that he is way more experienced than you, knows way more about the industry.
414
00:23:09.425 --> 00:23:13.366
I think you have to come from the place of humility and you're trying to help him, right?
415
00:23:13.666 --> 00:23:21.209
He's not going to change unless there's evidence that doing so makes him more money and takes things off of his plate and gives him more control because that's what he wants.
416
00:23:21.629 --> 00:23:22.050
Exactly.
417
00:23:22.090 --> 00:23:27.654
So what I noticed is I'll tell him something, for example, I'll say we should raise prices by 15%, for example, he won't listen to me.
418
00:23:27.694 --> 00:23:32.539
But if he hears a billionaire or millionaire says it, he's like, Yeah, we should raise prices by 15%.
419
00:23:32.919 --> 00:23:34.420
And I'm like, I just told you that.
420
00:23:34.440 --> 00:23:35.221
Why don't you believe me?
421
00:23:35.241 --> 00:23:35.501
You know?
422
00:23:35.841 --> 00:23:36.262
Yeah, like...
423
00:23:36.622 --> 00:23:39.604
It's very difficult with family because you've made it personal, right?
424
00:23:39.744 --> 00:23:40.745
Like both of you, right?
425
00:23:41.245 --> 00:23:43.347
It's difficult for him to listen to his 19-year-old son.
426
00:23:43.467 --> 00:23:49.371
It's difficult for you to work underneath your dad that you see all of his flaws, right?
427
00:23:49.391 --> 00:23:50.152
He's not your boss.
428
00:23:50.252 --> 00:23:50.752
He's your dad.
429
00:23:51.332 --> 00:23:55.836
And so I would, number one, prioritize the relationship with your father, and that's the number one.
430
00:23:56.636 --> 00:24:07.025
If in the meantime, down the road, if you can work for the next couple of years and he gets more trusting of you and allows you to cash the checks, allows you to be able to take over settings, you just got to be patient, right?
431
00:24:07.385 --> 00:24:07.966
It's patience.
432
00:24:08.346 --> 00:24:19.255
And then if it's the only thing that he sees right now to know if whether or not price increases are happening is the checks, get yourself as a signer on the bank account and take it off his plate so he doesn't have to worry about it.
433
00:24:19.955 --> 00:24:25.140
And then you give him a report at the end of the month or at the end of the week in terms of how much money is coming in.
434
00:24:25.600 --> 00:24:26.681
Cause that's all he really cares about.
435
00:24:27.001 --> 00:24:29.442
I noticed like he's been undercharging for a lot of jobs.
436
00:24:29.482 --> 00:24:30.983
You know, he's only had all these clients.
437
00:24:31.003 --> 00:24:34.706
Like the only way he's gotten all these clients are just straight from referrals because he does good work.
438
00:24:34.726 --> 00:24:40.930
He's an honest guy, but I noticed like a lot of people are like, are taking advantage, like $800 for a drainage job that took like 10 hours.
439
00:24:40.950 --> 00:24:43.031
Like, come on, we're not making any profits.
440
00:24:43.051 --> 00:24:44.472
So you can't fix that one.
441
00:24:44.652 --> 00:24:49.014
You can't fix that one, Leonardo, because you don't have recurring revenue on a drainage job.
442
00:24:49.194 --> 00:24:51.456
As long as he's bidding, he can bid whatever he wants.
443
00:24:51.676 --> 00:24:52.336
It's his business.
444
00:24:52.376 --> 00:24:56.558
But the problem is those drainage jobs are coming from our current clients.
445
00:24:56.959 --> 00:24:57.919
No, I agree with you.
446
00:24:58.279 --> 00:24:59.520
Business-wise, I agree with you.
447
00:24:59.820 --> 00:25:02.682
It's not your business, and he has years of experience.
448
00:25:02.742 --> 00:25:03.722
He's not going to listen to you.
449
00:25:04.023 --> 00:25:04.443
Exactly.
450
00:25:05.023 --> 00:25:12.206
So I would maintain rank underneath him and make sure that you serve him and what he's wanting for the business.
451
00:25:12.466 --> 00:25:15.088
While at the same time, you might know everything that needs to change.
452
00:25:15.248 --> 00:25:18.089
Like, do you really believe people do not have a credit card?
453
00:25:18.289 --> 00:25:19.690
Do you really believe people don't have ACH?
454
00:25:19.890 --> 00:25:21.450
Like they would have died during COVID.
455
00:25:21.711 --> 00:25:28.654
Like they have the payment method, they will put it on file, but they're not gonna do it for trucking a truck guy who shows up and has an Excel spreadsheet, keeping track of payments.
456
00:25:29.414 --> 00:25:34.955
And so you getting into the software is going to be the type of thing that proved your clients that having a card and file is a good thing for them.
457
00:25:35.035 --> 00:25:36.316
Yeah, I am slowly proving.
458
00:25:36.356 --> 00:25:42.177
Ever since I used your Copilot CRM, slowly by slowly, the clients have been paying online.
459
00:25:42.517 --> 00:25:47.518
I joined Copilot just last month, but I was using Yardbook previously.
460
00:25:47.878 --> 00:25:51.459
And slowly by slowly, the customers were adding their ACH and card to file.
461
00:25:51.759 --> 00:25:52.900
So it's just a matter of time.
462
00:25:52.920 --> 00:25:58.741
But I just have the main question is, so this lady who has been helping us with the taxes and the profit and loss statement sheet.
463
00:25:59.461 --> 00:26:07.733
I was just wondering if my dad was getting scammed because she charges in between $1,000 to $1,500 to do the whole profit and loss statement sheet for the whole year.
464
00:26:08.173 --> 00:26:10.136
Is that how much you're supposed to charge for that?
465
00:26:10.497 --> 00:26:13.541
Is she doing bookkeeping on like a weekly basis?
466
00:26:14.182 --> 00:26:15.604
No, we just give her the profit.
467
00:26:15.624 --> 00:26:16.204
Like I said, like...
468
00:26:16.725 --> 00:26:18.227
I don't even know how to get, how he got this far.
469
00:26:18.247 --> 00:26:21.671
Like the only reason he got this far is because honesty and he does good work.
470
00:26:21.691 --> 00:26:24.254
Like numbers wise, like it just doesn't make sense, you know?
471
00:26:24.675 --> 00:26:30.101
So she kind of like, she's, she can manipulate my dad if she wants to, you know, she has the power to do it because my dad doesn't understand the numbers.
472
00:26:30.342 --> 00:26:35.188
So he's getting charged between a thousand and $1,500 for what bookkeeping or
473
00:26:35.648 --> 00:26:39.029
No, it's just straight up the profit and loss statement.
474
00:26:40.109 --> 00:26:42.390
How is she coming up with the profit and loss statement?
475
00:26:42.710 --> 00:26:45.950
Because we gave her the bank statements at the end of the year.
476
00:26:46.411 --> 00:26:51.952
Yeah, so this is where you would want QuickBooks where you're not just doing it at the end of the year.
477
00:26:54.372 --> 00:26:56.253
I'm going to try to organize my dad.
478
00:26:56.273 --> 00:26:58.713
I'm trying to do all the finances, and I'm still learning.
479
00:26:58.753 --> 00:27:03.254
So I'm just trying to find out who's taking advantage of my dad or who isn't because I'm still learning at the same time.
480
00:27:03.294 --> 00:27:05.255
So I don't want people to take advantage of me as well.
481
00:27:05.595 --> 00:27:11.840
Yeah, I would take much more of a follower's approach in terms of how things are happening with your dad.
482
00:27:11.880 --> 00:27:12.801
He's made it so far.
483
00:27:13.081 --> 00:27:14.182
He does a great work.
484
00:27:14.623 --> 00:27:17.345
I would support him 110% and maintain that relationship.
485
00:27:17.765 --> 00:27:20.848
And you're going to be frustrated all along the way because people are taking advantage of him.
486
00:27:20.868 --> 00:27:22.229
He's not charging enough, et cetera.
487
00:27:22.549 --> 00:27:23.490
But this isn't your business.
488
00:27:23.750 --> 00:27:28.855
You can do everything within your rank, but you can't punch above your weight class when it comes to your dad.
489
00:27:29.375 --> 00:27:30.797
So that's what I mentioned to you.
490
00:27:30.817 --> 00:27:35.802
So I wanted to help my dad, like at least have control and create those systems, the standard operating procedures.
491
00:27:36.263 --> 00:27:40.948
And once he has that control, I was thinking about joining the Augusta lawn care nation, if that was a possibility.
492
00:27:41.449 --> 00:27:45.033
I don't know if you have any, there's any already any locations in Georgia.
493
00:27:45.353 --> 00:27:47.274
Yeah, all of that's like down the road.
494
00:27:47.294 --> 00:27:49.355
You could always talk to the team and see if it's a fit.
495
00:27:49.415 --> 00:27:52.417
For now, though, Leonardo, I think it is patience.
496
00:27:52.597 --> 00:27:57.919
I know it's like to be at 19 chomping at the bit trying to make changes, especially when you see your family hurting or people taking advantage of them.
497
00:27:58.840 --> 00:28:00.821
You just need to build your skill set.
498
00:28:01.241 --> 00:28:09.585
You need years, not months, but years of experience to where you don't even have to question whether a $1,500 is good for the peanut.
499
00:28:09.745 --> 00:28:10.846
You know how to do cookbooks.
500
00:28:11.526 --> 00:28:12.626
You say, dad, you don't need that.
501
00:28:12.746 --> 00:28:14.027
I do it every single week.
502
00:28:14.267 --> 00:28:14.687
Here it is.
503
00:28:14.807 --> 00:28:15.667
I can do it way more better.
504
00:28:17.768 --> 00:28:19.308
He's like, all right, you do the admin side.
505
00:28:19.328 --> 00:28:19.929
I do my work.
506
00:28:19.949 --> 00:28:20.749
I do the admin side.
507
00:28:20.769 --> 00:28:22.389
I'm like, hey, we need this, this and that.
508
00:28:22.409 --> 00:28:25.510
I'm not trying to tell him like I try to find the cheapest solution possible.
509
00:28:25.530 --> 00:28:27.471
But every time he's like, no, we don't need it.
510
00:28:27.871 --> 00:28:31.112
I'm paying the pilot out of my own pocket because he doesn't want to pay for it.
511
00:28:31.732 --> 00:28:31.932
Yeah.
512
00:28:32.132 --> 00:28:33.694
He knows what it's capable of.
513
00:28:34.014 --> 00:28:34.975
And he's like, oh, that's good.
514
00:28:35.015 --> 00:28:35.315
That's good.
515
00:28:35.335 --> 00:28:36.657
I'm like, why isn't the business paying for it?
516
00:28:36.677 --> 00:28:37.517
He's like, it's too much money.
517
00:28:38.118 --> 00:28:38.919
It's not that much.
518
00:28:39.039 --> 00:28:41.661
You can only change someone's mind based on proof.
519
00:28:41.841 --> 00:28:42.582
So I want it to be.
520
00:28:42.602 --> 00:28:43.603
Proof, he still doesn't believe me.
521
00:28:43.623 --> 00:28:46.165
Like, I don't know what to do, to be honest.
522
00:28:46.185 --> 00:28:47.306
But when did you join Copilot?
523
00:28:47.666 --> 00:28:48.507
I joined last month.
524
00:28:48.627 --> 00:28:49.588
And slowly by slowly.
525
00:28:49.708 --> 00:28:49.928
Yeah.
526
00:28:50.109 --> 00:28:51.210
So here's the difference.
527
00:28:51.830 --> 00:28:52.811
Okay.
528
00:28:52.971 --> 00:28:54.492
You've done Copilot for 30 days.
529
00:28:54.852 --> 00:28:56.573
He's been in business for how many years?
530
00:28:56.853 --> 00:28:58.194
For 20 plus years.
531
00:28:58.254 --> 00:29:01.016
I've been using Yardbook as well, and he saw what it was capable of.
532
00:29:01.476 --> 00:29:02.397
Right.
533
00:29:02.757 --> 00:29:11.163
But the difference is he has approximately 50 times more experience doing the business without the software than he does with it.
534
00:29:11.443 --> 00:29:11.963
Not 50.
535
00:29:12.123 --> 00:29:12.544
Like 500.
536
00:29:13.204 --> 00:29:17.489
I feel like people telling him the truth because like, it's just super unorganized.
537
00:29:17.509 --> 00:29:20.993
Like he'll like, if I'm not there, he'll send out two guys without instructions.
538
00:29:21.013 --> 00:29:23.416
He's like, okay, pine straw, mulch, blah, blah, blah.
539
00:29:23.436 --> 00:29:24.237
And this, that, okay.
540
00:29:24.257 --> 00:29:25.018
And then he just leaves them.
541
00:29:25.078 --> 00:29:28.221
And then the guys do a bad job because they need kind of like an instruction sheet.
542
00:29:28.242 --> 00:29:30.044
Like you can't expect them to memorize all that.
543
00:29:30.364 --> 00:29:31.145
Like one thing at a time.
544
00:29:31.485 --> 00:29:36.047
One thing at a time, Leonardo, you stay underneath his direction.
545
00:29:36.467 --> 00:29:37.347
You do what he wants.
546
00:29:37.407 --> 00:29:38.348
He's the business owner.
547
00:29:38.748 --> 00:29:39.428
And then you prove it.
548
00:29:39.468 --> 00:29:40.028
Not for a month.
549
00:29:40.228 --> 00:29:45.910
I wouldn't believe you for a hard second if a 19-year-old told me after a month something was going to save me more money.
550
00:29:46.231 --> 00:29:47.091
I've been in business for 19 years.
551
00:29:47.111 --> 00:29:49.272
I've been working with him since I was 13, 14 years old.
552
00:29:50.548 --> 00:29:53.349
Right, right, but like you've used the software for a month.
553
00:29:53.409 --> 00:29:54.530
He's not going to listen to you.
554
00:29:54.590 --> 00:30:00.333
But I've been using a CRM for over a year, so I know a lot about, I know a lot more about the CRM than he does, and I'm not trying to take advantage of him.
555
00:30:00.353 --> 00:30:01.233
I'm trying to help him.
556
00:30:01.473 --> 00:30:02.674
This is going to be a lot of issues.
557
00:30:03.234 --> 00:30:07.056
I know, you have good intentions, but you gotta remember that you're trying to change someone's behavior.
558
00:30:07.516 --> 00:30:14.139
And if you want what's best for him, you need him to adopt this because he starts to see a pattern without you saying anything.
559
00:30:14.360 --> 00:30:18.922
So when customers start coming to him saying, thank you so much for sending my credit card information,
560
00:30:19.542 --> 00:30:20.584
He's not going to even tell you.
561
00:30:20.644 --> 00:30:21.585
He's not going to give you credit.
562
00:30:21.845 --> 00:30:24.889
But he's going to, in the back of his mind, register that as a positive thing for the business.
563
00:30:25.109 --> 00:30:28.494
And then one day, he said, hey, can we get everyone's card on file?
564
00:30:28.594 --> 00:30:34.261
And he'll come to you because you have a record of doing what's right for the business without asking or telling him what to do.
565
00:30:35.243 --> 00:30:36.064
Just focus on that.
566
00:30:36.264 --> 00:30:36.965
Jeffrey, you're up.
567
00:30:37.225 --> 00:30:38.226
Hey Mike, how's it going?
568
00:30:38.266 --> 00:30:40.208
It's George and this is my brother Jeffrey.
569
00:30:40.228 --> 00:30:41.148
Jeffrey, nice to meet you.
570
00:30:41.709 --> 00:30:43.951
Yeah, we run Evergreen Outdoor Services.
571
00:30:43.991 --> 00:30:46.453
We're located over here in Houston, Texas.
572
00:30:47.354 --> 00:30:48.154
So I'll make it quick.
573
00:30:48.615 --> 00:30:50.036
I have a couple questions.
574
00:30:50.336 --> 00:30:52.438
Just kind of what the last person said.
575
00:30:52.598 --> 00:30:58.763
Had a lot of experience in our market where, especially in these slower months, they want to do a lot of skips and stuff like that.
576
00:30:58.904 --> 00:31:00.505
So I want to stabilize revenue.
577
00:31:00.765 --> 00:31:02.507
We're doing about $600K a year.
578
00:31:03.047 --> 00:31:05.549
I want to stabilize revenue by doing subscription-based.
579
00:31:05.589 --> 00:31:09.273
So I kind of wanted to ask, what have you seen?
580
00:31:09.593 --> 00:31:11.015
What's your experience been with that?
581
00:31:11.575 --> 00:31:13.957
And what's the most successful way to roll it out?
582
00:31:14.178 --> 00:31:14.418
Yeah.
583
00:31:14.438 --> 00:31:19.042
So the first thing you want to be careful of is thinking that by doing subscription, you're going to make more money.
584
00:31:19.342 --> 00:31:22.285
What it does is it stabilizes your cash flow, which is fine.
585
00:31:22.666 --> 00:31:23.586
What market are you in?
586
00:31:23.867 --> 00:31:24.587
Houston, Texas.
587
00:31:25.268 --> 00:31:28.690
So in my opinion, I would go after winter services, not subscription.
588
00:31:29.010 --> 00:31:37.454
Mostly because when you sell to new customers in your market, is it common that people are pitching a monthly price or is it like a per cut, per service type price?
589
00:31:37.854 --> 00:31:52.142
I would say it's more common per cut, but there is people that offer like a monthly package or a subscription or not really a subscription, like a package, a monthly package, and they'll just do like 42 cuts for the year and this and that.
590
00:31:52.662 --> 00:31:57.105
Are you trying to grow in terms of revenue right now or do you want to be around that $600,000 to $800,000?
591
00:31:57.125 --> 00:31:58.246
That's a really good question.
592
00:31:59.146 --> 00:32:00.647
I see your videos a lot and stuff.
593
00:32:00.667 --> 00:32:03.529
So what I'm trying to do right now is to stabilize.
594
00:32:03.830 --> 00:32:07.192
I read Alex Formozzi's roadmap as well.
595
00:32:07.552 --> 00:32:09.733
So I'm trying to grow, but with purpose.
596
00:32:09.814 --> 00:32:11.375
I'm not just trying to grow like crazy.
597
00:32:11.695 --> 00:32:12.976
I want to stabilize this year.
598
00:32:13.056 --> 00:32:16.218
So that's kind of my reasoning just because I'm trying to grow like crazy.
599
00:32:16.658 --> 00:32:20.121
Being so flexible does create chaos during the middle of the season as well.
600
00:32:20.141 --> 00:32:28.868
I mean, I just wanna stabilize the cash flows, but at the same time, I'm just a little bit scared adding friction to the sale in an already price sensitive market.
601
00:32:29.188 --> 00:32:34.872
Most of the time when it comes to whether or not you use subscriptions versus per cut, for example, is gonna come down to whether our customers expect it.
602
00:32:35.213 --> 00:32:44.320
So if it's common in your market, I give the green light because people are used to comparing you versus the other guy who's 119 per month, you're 109, for example.
603
00:32:44.720 --> 00:32:58.010
When you start doing package pricing, though, and no one knows what you're talking about, you drop your close rate dramatically, and you require people to want all four services in the package instead of just the one thing they actually want, which is typically the gateway service, which for us is mowing.
604
00:32:58.250 --> 00:33:02.553
I would instead, if you're trying to still grow, it's not like you kind of still want to grow.
605
00:33:02.973 --> 00:33:07.417
If you do, I would still keep your pricing where your gateway is per cut.
606
00:33:08.077 --> 00:33:17.939
I would try to then after six months or a year, you could potentially be trying to upsell them, quote unquote, into a recurring subscription and explain to them why it's better for them.
607
00:33:18.219 --> 00:33:26.541
Now, keep in mind, this isn't a move your cash crunch to your spring rush, because right now you have the cash influx during the spring when there's more services, people are rolling in.
608
00:33:26.861 --> 00:33:31.802
When you do a subscription price, you're bringing down the floor of how much you make during the spring rush.
609
00:33:32.222 --> 00:33:34.582
And then you're so you can spread that cash out during the winter.
610
00:33:38.123 --> 00:34:04.220
not cash flow but more better money by just selling a service during the off season like winter services in houston crushes because you guys don't get like freezing snaps typically so like there's still wind there's still stuff falling off the trees there's you can still edge you can still trim bushes like i i think winter services would be a great option for you and then you still have that variable revenue that's coming in during the spring that will spike with along with the labor cost that also spikes
611
00:34:04.700 --> 00:34:12.626
Sometimes when people go to subscription, like, yeah, it sells my off season, but then you have a cash crunch in the middle of spring rush when you should be growing, but you don't have enough money because now you're not making as much.
612
00:34:12.726 --> 00:34:16.549
You're making 119 on the property when you otherwise would have made 200 back in the day.
613
00:34:17.349 --> 00:34:17.649
Okay.
614
00:34:17.990 --> 00:34:18.450
Understood.
615
00:34:19.090 --> 00:34:31.119
One other question at this stage, would you focus more on pushing harder on sales and marketing or would you build stronger systems in terms of like ops and admin and stuff like that?
616
00:34:31.717 --> 00:34:33.759
The only problem you have right now is your off season.
617
00:34:33.879 --> 00:34:45.189
If you fix that, you will have so much more confidence to be able to focus on growth because you're not going to where in the, like right now in the winter, I can almost guarantee there's either, you're either break even or losing money for three to four months.
618
00:34:45.810 --> 00:34:47.431
Two months, but yeah.
619
00:34:47.471 --> 00:34:48.212
That's the problem.
620
00:34:48.252 --> 00:34:51.114
You fix that, everything else, completely side issue.
621
00:34:51.475 --> 00:34:57.240
Because if you take those two months and just flip it to where you're making 10 or 15 grand in profit, your business probably doubles in profit.
622
00:34:57.420 --> 00:34:58.020
Yeah.
623
00:34:58.220 --> 00:34:58.460
Okay.
624
00:34:58.700 --> 00:34:59.881
So just focus on that.
625
00:35:00.301 --> 00:35:04.642
Like, like, look, read the offseason book, the free version of the courses on my website.
626
00:35:04.662 --> 00:35:09.683
Like, if you do that, everything else is like completely will become way easier.
627
00:35:10.043 --> 00:35:10.303
Okay.
628
00:35:10.783 --> 00:35:11.304
Sounds good.
629
00:35:11.604 --> 00:35:12.304
Appreciate your time.
630
00:35:12.764 --> 00:35:12.904
Yeah.
631
00:35:12.964 --> 00:35:17.285
I just don't want any month of the offseason to go less than 50% of revenue compared to your best months.
632
00:35:17.645 --> 00:35:19.246
And if I had to guess right now, it's 25, 30% tops.
633
00:35:20.913 --> 00:35:28.054
Yeah, right now, January, February, we probably, I aim to break even, but I think we lose a couple grand.
634
00:35:28.074 --> 00:35:34.336
But everything else is like, you know, we're five to 15 grand when the growing season or when we're going.
635
00:35:34.376 --> 00:35:38.736
So it gives me enough confidence to go through the winter season.
636
00:35:39.157 --> 00:35:45.218
But it's just I'm trying to prevent these skips and all this stuff because it does create chaos.
637
00:35:45.298 --> 00:35:46.778
We have most of our problems.
638
00:35:47.038 --> 00:35:48.679
Profit comes from projects, of course.
639
00:35:49.740 --> 00:35:53.983
So that's another thing, just trying to balance the recurring with the projects.
640
00:35:54.003 --> 00:35:55.725
But I know there's much other people.
641
00:35:56.585 --> 00:35:56.885
You're good.
642
00:35:57.146 --> 00:36:00.008
The only asterisks I'll put in Cure 3 of the book.
643
00:36:00.028 --> 00:36:01.989
So Cure 4 is what I just talked about, Winter Services.
644
00:36:02.690 --> 00:36:06.312
Cure 3, though, sorry, Cure 2, my apologies.
645
00:36:07.093 --> 00:36:10.375
When it comes to projects, you can absolutely sell warranties and guarantees.
646
00:36:10.796 --> 00:36:14.018
So this is how you bake in recurring revenue after a one-time project.
647
00:36:14.438 --> 00:36:17.960
So you say, hey, I will warranty all these plants, all the irrigation.
648
00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:19.441
If anything breaks, we will be here forever.
649
00:36:19.521 --> 00:36:22.122
However, you have to sign up for our recurring service.
650
00:36:22.562 --> 00:36:29.146
And so you bake in extra value, get them on recurring service, and they're locked into it in order to be able to warranty everything you installed.
651
00:36:30.186 --> 00:36:32.828
You can get like 60% plus of our projects to do this.
652
00:36:33.108 --> 00:36:42.013
Assuming that you do things like irrigation, drainage, plants, any of those things, people love warranties because the last thing they want to think about is it breaking.
653
00:36:42.493 --> 00:36:47.856
And you just tie that warranty or that guarantee to you showing up on a regular basis for maintenance.
654
00:36:48.576 --> 00:36:48.856
Got it.
655
00:36:48.916 --> 00:36:49.477
Great info.
656
00:36:49.677 --> 00:36:50.238
Thank you.
657
00:36:50.658 --> 00:36:51.298
You got it.
658
00:36:51.719 --> 00:36:52.219
I'm Anthony.
659
00:36:52.239 --> 00:36:52.900
Appreciate it.
660
00:36:52.920 --> 00:36:55.502
Thanks for going over on time here and whatnot.
661
00:36:55.582 --> 00:37:00.847
But I got a quick question just about, you know, I don't really need to grow.
662
00:37:00.887 --> 00:37:02.829
We've got about just over 900 customers.
663
00:37:02.849 --> 00:37:06.292
We're doing about just a little over 500,000 in total revenue.
664
00:37:06.312 --> 00:37:07.593
My issue is finding...
665
00:37:07.973 --> 00:37:09.715
Quality employees, man, that's my biggest thing.
666
00:37:09.755 --> 00:37:19.524
And right now, I'm almost in that, you know, middle area to where I need to be dialed back more to free myself up to go look at sales and to take the phone calls and everything like that.
667
00:37:19.584 --> 00:37:24.189
So our biggest thing is just trying to find employees and I don't even advertise like I don't put anything on the trucks.
668
00:37:24.629 --> 00:37:25.990
I don't put anything out there online.
669
00:37:26.070 --> 00:37:30.953
Like I literally just do referral word to mouth, you know, and that's been our biggest generator of income, you know?
670
00:37:31.013 --> 00:37:46.542
So for us, it's just, how can we, you know, find that guy that can possibly replace me to make it to where I can actually answer phone calls and do all the things that I need to do on my end where I'm not, you know, constantly just stressed out and stretching myself too thin.
671
00:37:46.582 --> 00:37:46.783
Yeah.
672
00:37:47.123 --> 00:37:50.225
It's like right now, are you, are you answering the phones?
673
00:37:50.245 --> 00:37:50.345
Yeah.
674
00:37:50.885 --> 00:37:51.205
Oh, yeah.
675
00:37:51.485 --> 00:37:51.726
Okay.
676
00:37:51.966 --> 00:37:56.029
So I would really look at it as like you have sales, operation, and admin, right?
677
00:37:56.049 --> 00:37:56.249
Yeah.
678
00:37:56.349 --> 00:37:58.410
Right now, you are trying to delegate operations.
679
00:37:58.930 --> 00:37:59.131
Mm-hmm.
680
00:37:59.311 --> 00:38:00.712
I want you to delegate admin first.
681
00:38:00.932 --> 00:38:01.252
Okay.
682
00:38:01.772 --> 00:38:08.617
Admin is a lower leverage task, and it's easier to replace someone answering the phone, doing emails, sending out quotes, responding to customers.
683
00:38:08.897 --> 00:38:11.439
That's an easier and cheaper role to fill.
684
00:38:11.779 --> 00:38:17.483
But when you replace yourself for an hour of that time, you get an hour back to do operations or sales, which is higher leverage.
685
00:38:17.523 --> 00:38:17.663
Yeah.
686
00:38:17.743 --> 00:38:25.825
If you get an admin person, maybe not full-time, maybe full-time during the spring rush, but like they can be a couple hours a day after spring rush, for example.
687
00:38:26.145 --> 00:38:28.686
But by doing that, you'll get to 750,000.
688
00:38:28.966 --> 00:38:34.007
Once you get to 750,000, then you will get an operations manager and that allows you to move into sales.
689
00:38:34.447 --> 00:38:36.748
So I want you to move, think about it.
690
00:38:36.768 --> 00:38:40.509
Right now you're juggling all three balls of admin, sales, and operations.
691
00:38:41.029 --> 00:38:44.250
I want you to delegate everything with admin, every email,
692
00:38:44.650 --> 00:38:48.193
at routing, scheduling, dispatch, all of that stuff is admin.
693
00:38:48.474 --> 00:38:49.335
And it can be taught.
694
00:38:49.355 --> 00:38:54.860
And it's easier to find someone and cheaper to find someone that does that versus operations where they have to have experience.
695
00:38:54.900 --> 00:38:58.643
They need to be able to hire, train, do mechanic work, all the rest of it.
696
00:38:59.043 --> 00:39:03.948
So I think you have the right idea, but it's a sequence of order, order of operations.
697
00:39:04.388 --> 00:39:08.112
And to do admin, it's going to require systems so you can't hand it off.
698
00:39:08.432 --> 00:39:08.632
Right.
699
00:39:08.773 --> 00:39:08.953
Yeah.
700
00:39:08.973 --> 00:39:11.776
Well, that's why we're switching to co-pilot here actually next week.
701
00:39:11.836 --> 00:39:15.339
So we're going to full blown do the whole thing, you know, the most expensive one.
702
00:39:15.400 --> 00:39:17.682
Cause I mean, we've been doing things very archaic here.
703
00:39:17.702 --> 00:39:23.928
It's just, the billing is just kind of a, I don't want to say nightmare, but it's very old school mailing stuff out.
704
00:39:23.989 --> 00:39:25.410
And I want to get away from that.
705
00:39:25.430 --> 00:39:25.951
And I want to get to
706
00:39:26.491 --> 00:39:29.433
digitalize everything eventually in the next, you know, two to three years.
707
00:39:29.813 --> 00:39:31.014
It's kind of the long-term goal.
708
00:39:31.054 --> 00:39:34.457
That way you're not dealing with paper stamps, you know, doing the whole thing.
709
00:39:34.477 --> 00:39:43.043
You know, it's just, it's just so much labor intensive to do all that and money, you know, because stamps are now 73 cents, you know, so it's crazy what it costs to send a piece of mail out.
710
00:39:43.483 --> 00:39:51.009
I would just say, like, don't think about trying to delegate operations or getting a stellar crew lead or anything until all of admin is completely delegated.
711
00:39:51.509 --> 00:39:53.170
And I don't think it'll take you two or three years.
712
00:39:53.391 --> 00:40:05.019
I think within six months, you can really focus on using the software and then creating systems for how you do things in email, how you answer the phone, how you send out quotes, how you send work change orders.
713
00:40:05.299 --> 00:40:11.224
You're going to create a system for all of those things, likely a screen recording that you can hand off to someone else to do the admin work.
714
00:40:11.744 --> 00:40:12.605
That frees you up.
715
00:40:12.765 --> 00:40:18.411
I'm going to guess 20% to 30% of your day to go focus on the team, and that's going to be the unlock around hiring.
716
00:40:18.971 --> 00:40:19.211
Yeah.
717
00:40:19.452 --> 00:40:29.241
Because you're going to have more time to do onboarding, interviewing, screening, spend more time with them in the truck, because you're not answering your phone and doing all this other admin-related things.
718
00:40:29.601 --> 00:40:29.842
Yeah.
719
00:40:30.222 --> 00:40:30.382
Yeah.
720
00:40:30.402 --> 00:40:32.785
I mean, I literally sit in my truck for hours, so yeah.
721
00:40:34.005 --> 00:40:34.306
Okay.
722
00:40:34.326 --> 00:40:35.086
Well, I appreciate it, man.
723
00:40:35.326 --> 00:40:36.327
I would focus on that first.
724
00:40:36.367 --> 00:40:40.890
And then I'd say within a year or two, what's going to happen is you're going to grow the business and then you'll feel pressure again.
725
00:40:40.910 --> 00:40:42.892
And we'll do the same thing for operations.
726
00:40:43.252 --> 00:40:49.897
And then you will probably take one of your crew technicians and you'll upgrade them to be an operations manager so you can focus most of your time on sales.
727
00:40:50.177 --> 00:40:51.318
And that gets you past a million.
728
00:40:51.823 --> 00:40:52.303
Yeah, yeah.
729
00:40:52.544 --> 00:40:52.644
Yeah.
730
00:40:52.664 --> 00:40:54.085
I mean, it runs right now.
731
00:40:54.125 --> 00:40:58.009
Like if I'm not, if I take a week out, you know, to do a vacation, it'll still operate.
732
00:40:58.069 --> 00:40:58.449
Okay.
733
00:40:58.949 --> 00:41:01.071
But it's just that, you know, that initial spring rush.
734
00:41:01.091 --> 00:41:09.078
And then that late fall, you know, with that aeration season coming in, you know, because we just strictly do fertilizing, you know, and aeration that we really don't, you know, stray from there at all.
735
00:41:09.619 --> 00:41:11.220
It's pretty much our bread and butter, really.
736
00:41:11.280 --> 00:41:13.582
But yeah, it makes sense on what you're saying, for sure.
737
00:41:14.063 --> 00:41:15.104
You know, doing the admin first.
738
00:41:15.184 --> 00:41:16.105
I definitely appreciate it.
739
00:41:16.723 --> 00:41:16.983
Awesome.
740
00:41:17.083 --> 00:41:17.484
You got it.
741
00:41:17.844 --> 00:41:19.305
Marina, are you going to be the admin person?
742
00:41:19.665 --> 00:41:20.586
I am.
743
00:41:20.606 --> 00:41:22.047
Oh, you are?
744
00:41:22.448 --> 00:41:28.272
Yeah, I do the invoicing and payments and answer all of those questions.
745
00:41:28.312 --> 00:41:32.376
There's just a lot of, I think I have moles in my yard.
746
00:41:32.576 --> 00:41:37.520
Can you tell me what this product is that you put down that I'm like, I don't know how to answer that.
747
00:41:40.004 --> 00:41:40.144
Yeah.
748
00:41:40.164 --> 00:41:46.646
So like, are you going to be trying to get yourself out of the business by having an admin person or are you staying as the admin person?
749
00:41:46.826 --> 00:41:51.067
I was like, I, I'm kind of like, I want to stay the admin person.
750
00:41:51.527 --> 00:41:54.068
I just don't know if I can answer all those phone calls.
751
00:41:54.368 --> 00:41:59.630
I mean, like give the answer, but yes, I, I am want to continue to work as an admin person.
752
00:42:00.170 --> 00:42:00.370
Cool.
753
00:42:00.430 --> 00:42:06.632
So every single time Anthony gets brought into anything to do with admin, we need to create a document around what there's being said.
754
00:42:06.812 --> 00:42:12.353
That becomes a training that you end up handing off to someone else, but you also need to know it like why moles are there.
755
00:42:12.653 --> 00:42:14.073
It's a question that has an answer.
756
00:42:14.694 --> 00:42:14.934
Right.
757
00:42:15.374 --> 00:42:18.194
And so you could create a Google Docker on this.
758
00:42:18.235 --> 00:42:20.435
You can create a chat in chat to you, create a project.
759
00:42:20.695 --> 00:42:26.897
You put all information as it comes in and you ask questions live on the phone and it spits out answers based on what you've told it.
760
00:42:27.417 --> 00:42:27.637
Right.
761
00:42:27.657 --> 00:42:27.837
Oh, okay.
762
00:42:28.618 --> 00:42:28.838
Right.
763
00:42:28.918 --> 00:42:38.966
So, yeah, I would really like given the fact that both of you are in the business, basically everything Anthony does that is not to do with doing the work or getting work needs to be taken off his plate.
764
00:42:39.246 --> 00:42:43.649
And if it's a matter of just skill or knowledge, we need to download that from him to you.
765
00:42:43.890 --> 00:42:50.975
And if it's still impossible to cut the service, because there's probably five or 10 percent of your revenue that's coming from services that only he can manage the admin.
766
00:42:51.275 --> 00:42:53.617
Those services got to go so that you can systematize.
767
00:42:53.917 --> 00:42:54.217
Okay.
768
00:42:54.237 --> 00:42:58.581
So, and then he gets a lot of calls of people are like, can you come look at my lawn?
769
00:42:58.661 --> 00:43:02.524
We have this brown spots in our, in our yard.
770
00:43:02.905 --> 00:43:07.108
Should I be like maybe creating like a list for him?
771
00:43:07.128 --> 00:43:09.330
Be like, these people say they have this in their yard.
772
00:43:09.831 --> 00:43:11.092
They want you to go see it.
773
00:43:11.172 --> 00:43:17.137
So then like, I'm taking that phone call off of his plate, but he still has to go out there and look at it and do the footwork.
774
00:43:17.537 --> 00:43:17.757
Right.
775
00:43:17.817 --> 00:43:25.341
And so now the objective is that when he shows up for his day, he knows which hours of the day he does operations and which hours he does sales.
776
00:43:25.741 --> 00:43:29.604
So for example, he's going to show up, he's going to get the crew started from seven till two.
777
00:43:29.864 --> 00:43:34.706
He knows he's out in the field with the team, training, getting jobs done, moving projects around, whatever.
778
00:43:35.026 --> 00:43:41.350
From two to five, that's when you're scheduling estimates and potentially just drive by estimates for things like spot pot, uh,
779
00:43:41.991 --> 00:43:42.672
spots on a lawn.
780
00:43:42.932 --> 00:43:44.736
He does not need to talk to the customer.
781
00:43:44.976 --> 00:43:51.208
That gives him the flexibility to get five or six estimates done instead of two or three because it's a drive-by estimate instead of an in-person estimate.
782
00:43:51.429 --> 00:43:51.609
Yeah.
783
00:43:53.036 --> 00:43:53.216
Awesome.
784
00:43:53.236 --> 00:43:53.897
No, I appreciate you.
785
00:43:54.537 --> 00:43:55.558
No more admin, Anthony.
786
00:43:55.898 --> 00:43:57.540
I disqualify you from the admin role.
787
00:43:58.661 --> 00:43:59.261
I appreciate it.
788
00:43:59.842 --> 00:44:02.384
You got Addison, go ahead, and then we'll come back to Jeremiah.
789
00:44:02.704 --> 00:44:08.288
So my biggest concern is to get a reoccurring revenue setup.
790
00:44:08.749 --> 00:44:21.219
In the Waco area, it feels like the best selling proposition is speed to lead and a more comprehensive service where the customer doesn't have to think about their property.
791
00:44:21.639 --> 00:44:24.060
They just know, okay, I just want you to take care of all this.
792
00:44:24.100 --> 00:44:25.560
And we just, it's a monthly fee.
793
00:44:25.920 --> 00:44:28.761
There's just a lot of the lower guys are going to show up.
794
00:44:28.801 --> 00:44:29.901
They'll work for $30 an hour.
795
00:44:29.921 --> 00:44:31.082
And they're very happy with that.
796
00:44:31.262 --> 00:44:32.082
I don't want to do that.
797
00:44:32.582 --> 00:44:36.263
If you had to pick, like, I don't have a lot of cash at all.
798
00:44:36.783 --> 00:44:38.604
We had a slow start last year, which was fine.
799
00:44:38.624 --> 00:44:42.225
And then of course, going into winter, Google service leads has been a saving thing.
800
00:44:42.905 --> 00:44:44.126
saving grace for us.
801
00:44:44.566 --> 00:44:46.628
It's brought in a lot of big projects through the winter.
802
00:44:46.688 --> 00:44:47.628
It's kind of helped us out.
803
00:44:47.929 --> 00:44:54.873
But if you had to pick another lead generator, websites built, it's not amazing, but it's decent.
804
00:44:55.954 --> 00:45:01.318
Would you, do you feel like the Facebook ads, Google ads, or is it a mixture of things?
805
00:45:01.818 --> 00:45:06.699
Yeah, so for me, it is like if I could dump more money on LSA, I would use it more.
806
00:45:06.759 --> 00:45:08.799
But the problem is you're capped by how much you can spend.
807
00:45:09.219 --> 00:45:10.920
Like they won't let you spend their whole budget.
808
00:45:11.000 --> 00:45:15.140
So that's the only reason I wouldn't just spend every dollar possible with them.
809
00:45:15.500 --> 00:45:16.441
Then I go door hangers.
810
00:45:16.801 --> 00:45:17.781
Then I go Google ads.
811
00:45:17.841 --> 00:45:18.941
Then I go Facebook ads.
812
00:45:19.021 --> 00:45:22.442
Then I go anything crazy like Angie, HomeAdvisor.
813
00:45:22.462 --> 00:45:24.422
Sometimes those are worth some random markets.
814
00:45:24.822 --> 00:45:30.763
But like I would say for all of those outside of LSA, spend the first dollars on your website.
815
00:45:31.323 --> 00:45:40.026
And so if that website is not optimized for conversion, not looking good, not anything like that, like it needs to be optimized for conversion because we see this all the time.
816
00:45:40.126 --> 00:45:43.447
We do one thing at home service web design and it's optimized for conversion.
817
00:45:43.507 --> 00:45:44.527
That's actually the truth.
818
00:45:45.068 --> 00:45:53.090
Because when we get people, on average, about one in a 300 people that show up to your site become a lead, like as like a general, when we see people come in.
819
00:45:53.390 --> 00:45:58.252
If we can get that to one out of 100, just increasing their conversion rate, they triple their leads.
820
00:45:59.392 --> 00:46:14.182
And so I would highly recommend before you spend a dollar on ads, spend like every dollar you spend on conversion rate optimization, designing your website and your flow on mobile and making sure like it's really easy to get a lead when you're on a mobile device on the homepage above the fold.
821
00:46:14.202 --> 00:46:17.124
Like that will outperform any dollar you spend on ads.
822
00:46:17.364 --> 00:46:17.685
Okay.
823
00:46:18.025 --> 00:46:20.867
That being said, I don't think I'm in a place to –
824
00:46:21.347 --> 00:46:23.489
hire home design or whatever you call it.
825
00:46:23.529 --> 00:46:26.211
Um, I don't even know that I really want to hire someone else.
826
00:46:26.391 --> 00:46:33.856
What do you see as being the, like, what is the biggest inhibitor to the, to conversions if you had to say one thing?
827
00:46:34.196 --> 00:46:34.336
Okay.
828
00:46:34.356 --> 00:46:39.460
I'll do one thing and then I'll say I may, I've made a bunch of videos where I go through websites and pick stuff out.
829
00:46:39.780 --> 00:46:46.226
If you watch a couple of those on the Home Service Millionaire channel where I do site after site after site, you'll start seeing a pattern.
830
00:46:46.246 --> 00:46:52.592
The biggest thing, if I had to say one, is estimate request form above the fold on the homepage.
831
00:46:52.992 --> 00:46:58.056
That will increase your conversion by 30% alone compared to putting it on a contact us page or down below.
832
00:46:58.076 --> 00:46:59.398
Right, right.
833
00:46:59.458 --> 00:47:02.741
So on our homepage, we have a huge contact for quote.
834
00:47:03.001 --> 00:47:05.443
It's like one of the first things they see up top.
835
00:47:05.543 --> 00:47:06.624
That's like the number one thing.
836
00:47:07.284 --> 00:47:10.246
Watch the videos because there'll be 30 other things I'll go through on those.
837
00:47:10.486 --> 00:47:10.686
Okay.
838
00:47:11.506 --> 00:47:12.167
Sounds good.
839
00:47:12.387 --> 00:47:13.047
Appreciate it.
840
00:47:13.648 --> 00:47:14.088
You got it.
841
00:47:14.108 --> 00:47:14.908
Jeremiah, you're up.
842
00:47:15.188 --> 00:47:16.549
Mine's kind of similar to those.
843
00:47:16.589 --> 00:47:19.271
So I'm still on my first year of business.
844
00:47:19.311 --> 00:47:20.271
I started last April.
845
00:47:20.311 --> 00:47:20.992
It's just me.
846
00:47:21.252 --> 00:47:25.214
Primarily do pressure washing, exterior cleaning, seal coating, epoxy.
847
00:47:25.434 --> 00:47:26.995
I only got two jobs for all.
848
00:47:27.135 --> 00:47:30.097
last year, both pressure washing about 600 bucks.
849
00:47:30.538 --> 00:47:34.721
I spent about 1500 bucks on Yelp and door hangers.
850
00:47:34.941 --> 00:47:39.885
Both jobs I got were from Yelp, but it was like double the cost in advertising just to get those two.
851
00:47:40.225 --> 00:47:50.533
So I just want to know basically like my size, where I'm at right now, what's the most effective advertising that I should be looking at and where to focus that advertising.
852
00:47:50.573 --> 00:47:50.993
I do have a
853
00:47:54.323 --> 00:47:56.285
Yeah, I wouldn't spend any money on marketing.
854
00:47:56.845 --> 00:48:04.371
I would make sure that I am posting on local Facebook groups, my before and afters, not in a salesy way, just introducing yourself.
855
00:48:04.711 --> 00:48:12.738
I will make sure that I have at least 30 Google reviews on a verified Google business listing that has an address verified, not just a service area.
856
00:48:13.098 --> 00:48:19.723
I'd make sure I'm adding pictures at least once a week to my Google listing, and I have everything updated in terms of what services I offer on my Google listing.
857
00:48:20.064 --> 00:48:21.245
If you do that alone,
858
00:48:21.945 --> 00:48:28.189
If you get over 30 Google reviews, probably just that one thing, you'll get at least two leads a month from that.
859
00:48:28.529 --> 00:48:30.110
So that's where I would start.
860
00:48:30.150 --> 00:48:31.591
I wouldn't just spend any money on marketing.
861
00:48:31.871 --> 00:48:32.191
Good deal.
862
00:48:32.211 --> 00:48:32.612
Thanks, Mike.
863
00:48:32.632 --> 00:48:33.332
I appreciate it.
864
00:48:33.352 --> 00:48:34.853
Joe Quinn, you've been waiting patiently.
865
00:48:34.873 --> 00:48:35.473
Go for it, brother.
866
00:48:35.593 --> 00:48:35.974
Thank you.
867
00:48:36.254 --> 00:48:39.516
I just have one quick question just to give a little bit of background.
868
00:48:39.756 --> 00:48:41.637
I started the business when I was 14.
869
00:48:41.957 --> 00:48:43.318
The first year we did $60,000.
870
00:48:43.518 --> 00:48:45.680
Second year, which was last year, we did $220,000.
871
00:48:46.760 --> 00:48:48.962
This year, we want to hit around 450 to 500.
872
00:48:49.082 --> 00:48:50.843
So far, we have never done any marketing.
873
00:48:51.083 --> 00:49:06.994
Biggest question is we're kind of thinking whether or not to just do a bunch of door hangers or whether or not it's better to do like just do me doing like door to door, like just actually interacting with customers or potential customers.
874
00:49:07.554 --> 00:49:07.875
So...
875
00:49:08.675 --> 00:49:15.322
Either we would just do, I would hire a guy, pay him whatever, $20 an hour to go do door hangers.
876
00:49:15.823 --> 00:49:18.626
And he would do that, you know, 40 hours a week.
877
00:49:19.286 --> 00:49:23.030
Maybe our goal would be to do like 30, 40,000 door hangers.
878
00:49:23.350 --> 00:49:26.354
So both of those you can test and see which one's going to convert more.
879
00:49:26.874 --> 00:49:27.254
Right.
880
00:49:27.375 --> 00:49:36.422
So if you start knocking on doors and one out of 20 people say yes, and one out of 100 are saying yes to door hangers, knocking on doors works great.
881
00:49:37.643 --> 00:49:40.085
And you will have a higher conversion if you knock on the door.
882
00:49:40.346 --> 00:49:48.593
The challenging part is what you just said, and that is when you scale this, are you wanting to either A, train people how to knock on doors and talk to people, or training them how to hang up a door hanger?
883
00:49:49.273 --> 00:49:52.775
usually more scalable for the latter and has door hanger, right?
884
00:49:52.835 --> 00:49:56.097
So not to say you can't do door to door and scale it.
885
00:49:56.117 --> 00:49:59.379
Like there are companies, especially on pest control, that do a ton of door to door.
886
00:49:59.759 --> 00:50:02.221
So you just don't know which one works for you.
887
00:50:02.241 --> 00:50:09.845
I would say as long as you are doing the door hangers, knock on the door, you will get more customers, assuming that you know what to say when they open the door.
888
00:50:10.225 --> 00:50:13.086
I'm going to go on a limb and say you probably could have some gift of gab.
889
00:50:13.346 --> 00:50:17.867
You know how to be able to upsell them, talk to them about other stuff, get them engaged, walk around the property.
890
00:50:18.067 --> 00:50:18.307
Great.
891
00:50:18.788 --> 00:50:24.149
That's a harder skill that you might not be able to translate over to someone else versus like your door, put them on the door.
892
00:50:24.369 --> 00:50:24.529
Right?
893
00:50:24.549 --> 00:50:31.051
So it might be where's right now to get your first 20, 30, 40, you might, might work great for door knocking, but I would test both.
894
00:50:31.431 --> 00:50:37.713
So when you roll it out with, and you scale it out with someone else doing the door hangers, you know, the general math of how many leads you get per hundred.
895
00:50:38.033 --> 00:50:38.493
Yeah.
896
00:50:38.513 --> 00:50:38.694
Okay.
897
00:50:38.834 --> 00:50:39.174
Perfect.
898
00:50:39.194 --> 00:50:39.534
Thank you.
899
00:50:39.934 --> 00:50:40.235
Awesome.
900
00:50:40.315 --> 00:50:48.600
So the way our – we have two field positions, people that find the problem and then sell the repair needed, and then the repair guys come out.
901
00:50:49.721 --> 00:50:52.943
And so sales are handled by that first guy.
902
00:50:53.984 --> 00:50:59.488
You talk about when a company gets into that million-dollar range, the owner just really needs to be the salesperson.
903
00:50:59.828 --> 00:51:02.350
But in my business, I don't need to be the salesperson.
904
00:51:02.650 --> 00:51:05.431
What would you recommend my main duties?
905
00:51:05.471 --> 00:51:11.355
Because my goal this year is to get into that million-dollar range where I can be the branch manager and out of the field.
906
00:51:11.575 --> 00:51:15.437
Right now I'm the working GM, you know, and so thinking that one through.
907
00:51:15.557 --> 00:51:19.340
Because I hear you talk a lot about sales needs to be the number one thing when you get out of the field.
908
00:51:21.673 --> 00:51:28.658
My thoughts was just making sure customers are happy, developing a team, and maintaining strong relationships with our referral partners.
909
00:51:29.279 --> 00:51:33.102
I don't know if you've seen other business models operate in this way and would have recommendations.
910
00:51:33.362 --> 00:51:38.145
So just to be clear, you're still in operations, leading the team, et cetera, but you have a salesperson.
911
00:51:38.165 --> 00:51:38.686
Is that correct?
912
00:51:38.926 --> 00:51:39.887
No.
913
00:51:40.047 --> 00:51:46.892
Someone goes out, finds the leak, they get paid to do a leak detection, and then they also sell the repairs if there's a broken pipe.
914
00:51:48.065 --> 00:51:49.586
They're not repairing it.
915
00:51:49.646 --> 00:51:51.047
They're going to send a repair guy out.
916
00:51:51.687 --> 00:51:54.269
We're going to send a repair guy out to repair another day.
917
00:51:54.909 --> 00:51:58.031
And so I don't have to go do sales is kind of what I mean.
918
00:51:58.071 --> 00:52:05.115
Like the leak detectors are also sales people, you know, and then we have the repair guys that go out.
919
00:52:05.763 --> 00:52:09.045
So the leak detectors, are those your employees or you're talking about the contractors?
920
00:52:09.345 --> 00:52:10.306
Yeah, no, it's ours.
921
00:52:10.386 --> 00:52:10.706
Yeah.
922
00:52:10.806 --> 00:52:12.948
So we have leak technicians and repair technicians.
923
00:52:13.208 --> 00:52:16.130
So the leak technicians, are they technically, would you consider them sales?
924
00:52:16.510 --> 00:52:17.711
It's a small part of their job.
925
00:52:18.111 --> 00:52:18.631
You know what I mean?
926
00:52:18.651 --> 00:52:22.053
They're just, they're just going out, spending a few hours going through the full pool system.
927
00:52:22.454 --> 00:52:25.355
Let's say they find a broken pipe on the pool main drain line.
928
00:52:25.636 --> 00:52:29.358
And then they just provide an estimate saying, you know, Hey, if you want this fixed.
929
00:52:29.798 --> 00:52:33.306
Here's what it'll cost and we can have a guy come out next Tuesday or whatever.
930
00:52:33.346 --> 00:52:33.847
You know what I mean?
931
00:52:33.908 --> 00:52:38.398
So it's not really any hardcore sales stuff, but yeah, they're making the sales for repairs.
932
00:52:38.821 --> 00:52:45.148
I think once you scale, what you'd probably end up doing is as the architect of the business is refining these processes, right?
933
00:52:45.168 --> 00:52:49.172
It's like creating a training system so that, hey, when you see the leak, here's how you present it.
934
00:52:49.692 --> 00:52:51.654
And no longer is it going to be like, here's the cost.
935
00:52:51.694 --> 00:52:57.560
It's like, it's going to be on a nice iPad and it's going to have a nice, well-designed thing that they can fill in the numbers and show it to the customer.
936
00:52:57.580 --> 00:52:59.743
They tap on it and it opens up and shows more information.
937
00:53:00.263 --> 00:53:03.045
I think the architect mode is what you'd be moving into.
938
00:53:03.085 --> 00:53:05.846
Right now, you're still very much in the manager mode.
939
00:53:06.287 --> 00:53:11.189
And so moving into architect mode, you just step back from the building and think, okay, how is she answering the phone?
940
00:53:11.269 --> 00:53:12.510
Okay, let's create a script for it.
941
00:53:12.730 --> 00:53:14.551
How can I upsell them on the phone call?
942
00:53:14.791 --> 00:53:17.113
How can I prep them or qualify them before the…
943
00:53:17.733 --> 00:53:20.535
the leak, whatever they call it, leak detector gets out there.
944
00:53:20.816 --> 00:53:23.318
And then with the leak detector, they have a processing system for the sales.
945
00:53:23.338 --> 00:53:28.042
And then for finding the next spot on the schedule, you basically step back and create systems for all of that.
946
00:53:28.362 --> 00:53:34.787
And vicariously, you're going to increase sales simply because you're probably going to make that leak detector's close rate go up, the amount that they sell go up.
947
00:53:34.867 --> 00:53:36.468
You're going to grease the wheels of upsells.
948
00:53:36.869 --> 00:53:38.770
A lot of those sort of things is what I'd be looking at.
949
00:53:38.830 --> 00:53:39.010
Yeah.
950
00:53:39.511 --> 00:53:40.392
Okay, awesome.
951
00:53:40.452 --> 00:53:41.933
That's my favorite stuff to do.
952
00:53:41.993 --> 00:53:43.714
So it sounds good to me.
953
00:53:44.075 --> 00:53:44.335
Awesome.
954
00:53:44.615 --> 00:53:45.015
You got it.
955
00:53:45.195 --> 00:53:45.756
Go ahead for it.
956
00:53:45.976 --> 00:53:52.380
I'm wanting to raise prices this year and potentially put the 3% on people using cards.
957
00:53:52.940 --> 00:53:54.121
So I may have two questions.
958
00:53:54.381 --> 00:54:01.665
So my first question is, you said that going to ACH would probably be a better way to go if you can get all your customers.
959
00:54:02.185 --> 00:54:06.408
It's really hard to talk customers into giving like your bank account information sometimes.
960
00:54:06.928 --> 00:54:09.830
Number one, would you try to go that route?
961
00:54:10.370 --> 00:54:13.252
And then number two, between now and March...
962
00:54:13.992 --> 00:54:24.917
when would be a good time to send out, say, hey, we're gonna start putting this 3% if you don't go over to ACH, or, and this is gonna be your price going forward for weekly lawn maintenance.
963
00:54:25.277 --> 00:54:27.639
Are you really, really busy and at capacity?
964
00:54:28.039 --> 00:54:32.061
Yeah, unfortunately, well, so I talked to Lee several times.
965
00:54:32.841 --> 00:54:40.047
his thing was maybe try to fill capacity with, cause I got two trucks with one truck, two people running it.
966
00:54:40.627 --> 00:54:47.372
Um, and then try to fill capacity with just you, maybe doing just you going out doing solo weekend trouble and fertilizing.
967
00:54:48.313 --> 00:54:55.659
Um, or if I wanted to raise prices and get rid of customers, I would probably have to get rid of probably 25 to 30 customers, um,
968
00:54:57.340 --> 00:55:12.352
It's just, it's, yeah, it's, we're kind of in between, but it's, I think it's right now, like the maintenance for everything that we have is sucking so much cash that it's, it's hard to, you know, save money during the year, you know, to have cash on hand.
969
00:55:12.452 --> 00:55:23.140
It seems like that we spent a lot this year on gas, uh, fixing, you know, the, the lawnmowers and stuff like it was just a lot that this year just seemed like everything just wanted to fall apart.
970
00:55:23.160 --> 00:55:24.661
So I'm trying to figure out
971
00:55:26.703 --> 00:55:34.886
I would say if you're going to raise prices at the same time, you also add a credit card fee because now you have two degrees of basically against your customers.
972
00:55:35.306 --> 00:55:39.308
You need to be at capacity to the point where you need to lose customers.
973
00:55:39.408 --> 00:55:42.749
So busy that you're like, I need 10% of customers to quit.
974
00:55:43.289 --> 00:55:45.750
Otherwise I have to turn off leads, like no new customers.
975
00:55:46.190 --> 00:55:54.374
Until that point, I would not do it mostly because I want you to actually raise the prices enough with no recourse.
976
00:55:55.694 --> 00:55:58.176
I'm doing this no matter what, I have to, I need to lose customers.
977
00:55:58.557 --> 00:56:06.324
Until you're at that point, if you raise prices and you told them they have to charge a fee for their credit cards and 20% of people left, you'd feel bad.
978
00:56:06.704 --> 00:56:07.165
Right, yeah.
979
00:56:07.545 --> 00:56:14.832
So I think though that once you get hit spring rush, there's a good chance you're going to get to the point where you're working overtime on weekends, you know, the two trucks are maxed out.
980
00:56:15.072 --> 00:56:20.738
Great, that's the moment you say, hey, your new price as of April 1st is going to be this,
981
00:56:21.358 --> 00:56:24.281
And by the way, you got to have a credit card ACH on file.
982
00:56:24.621 --> 00:56:26.582
It's 3% for the credit card.
983
00:56:26.663 --> 00:56:27.523
It's 0%.
984
00:56:27.763 --> 00:56:28.904
No fees for ACH.
985
00:56:29.084 --> 00:56:36.711
Would you try to get people to move the ACH without saying, hey, we're going to put this 3% on here if you don't move to ACH?
986
00:56:36.971 --> 00:56:40.073
Would you try to move everybody over to ACH?
987
00:56:40.554 --> 00:56:44.457
Or does that really matter to you in the grand scheme of things?
988
00:56:44.889 --> 00:56:52.595
Honestly, the way the design of the payment flow is, if you turn it on, they can see they can get free if they do ACH, right?
989
00:56:52.835 --> 00:56:54.356
It's the people that have a card on file.
990
00:56:54.936 --> 00:57:00.220
The people that have a card on file that have never checked their invoice, they're the ones that get mad because they don't actually see that.
991
00:57:00.280 --> 00:57:03.803
They just have a card on file, and now all of a sudden they're getting 3% tacked on.
992
00:57:04.103 --> 00:57:10.708
So I would just bake into one email, and I would much more pitch it as like, hey, there's going to be a 3% card fee.
993
00:57:11.348 --> 00:57:14.911
If you want to avoid this, just make sure you have an ACH and there will be no fee whatsoever.
994
00:57:14.931 --> 00:57:15.612
Okay.
995
00:57:16.112 --> 00:57:28.184
Now, if you told me that, hey, we are at max capacity even going into spring rush and we're like up to our eyeballs and work, we can't, then sure, before the season even starts, just say, hey, here's your price for the upcoming season.
996
00:57:28.264 --> 00:57:29.385
I would even say new price.
997
00:57:29.705 --> 00:57:31.306
Just here's your price for the upcoming season.
998
00:57:31.727 --> 00:57:33.488
And by the way, we're charging fees on credit cards.
999
00:57:33.528 --> 00:57:36.771
If you want to avoid this, click this button to add your ACH and it'll be 0% processing.
1000
00:57:37.532 --> 00:57:38.533
Okay, gotcha.
1001
00:57:38.913 --> 00:57:46.558
How much money do you think it sucks if you hire two people as a W-2 employee?
1002
00:57:47.218 --> 00:57:55.604
How much has that from starting, like putting two new people in the truck, how much money do you think that actually takes out of the profit once you do that?
1003
00:57:55.964 --> 00:57:58.966
Like just kind of like an estimate because I haven't really done that yet.
1004
00:57:59.566 --> 00:58:01.368
And my CPA told me,
1005
00:58:03.189 --> 00:58:14.763
it's kind of really not really for one person, but maybe if you had two or three, it may be worth it to put a W-2 and actually do the filing and giving them a check every week and stuff like that.
1006
00:58:14.783 --> 00:58:17.627
But as he says, a lot of work on the back end just for one person.
1007
00:58:18.039 --> 00:58:21.763
Well, regardless of what your CPA says, it's illegal to have a 1099 likely.
1008
00:58:22.424 --> 00:58:28.910
So regardless of how much extra work it is, it is according to the law, they should be paid a W-2.
1009
00:58:29.090 --> 00:58:30.131
It's not super expensive.
1010
00:58:30.212 --> 00:58:37.279
Usually QuickBooks or Gusto, you're looking at $40 to $60 a month and then maybe $9 per employee or so to just run payroll.
1011
00:58:37.759 --> 00:58:40.863
But legally, you have to have them as a W-2.
1012
00:58:41.423 --> 00:58:45.684
So I don't know what your CPA is doing, but like legally they have to be a W-2.
1013
00:58:46.165 --> 00:58:53.507
And then I would say anytime anyone says that having a technician costs you money, we have a bad business model.
1014
00:58:53.767 --> 00:59:00.769
Having more employees should always make you more money because they should be earning, let's just call it 80 or 100 bucks an hour, and you're paying them 20 to 30 bucks an hour.
1015
00:59:01.290 --> 00:59:04.991
So the only way you lose money when you add employees is if there's inefficiencies.
1016
00:59:05.591 --> 00:59:10.713
So if you had an employee too soon and now all of a sudden all your crew is twiddling their thumbs, yeah, you lose money.
1017
00:59:11.333 --> 00:59:18.101
But the whole objective here is to understand how many budget hours every technician should be able to produce and then holding their feet to the fire on that.
1018
00:59:18.521 --> 00:59:21.405
Do you use budget hours inside of Copilot right now?
1019
00:59:21.705 --> 00:59:22.826
Yeah, I try to.
1020
00:59:23.687 --> 00:59:28.793
Basically, like every week is almost like in the red of where I'm budget hours.
1021
00:59:28.853 --> 00:59:31.756
But it's just so hard because I'm trying to manage like everything.
1022
00:59:32.457 --> 00:59:34.300
And so like everything is so overwhelming.
1023
00:59:34.320 --> 00:59:37.364
Well, I think we have like 90 Recon customers.
1024
00:59:37.404 --> 00:59:43.292
We have like Landscape and it's just like, it's so overwhelming to try to do all this at the end of the day.
1025
00:59:43.312 --> 00:59:45.355
Okay.
1026
00:59:45.515 --> 00:59:46.937
So I'm taking back what I've told you.
1027
00:59:47.318 --> 00:59:48.438
are going to raise prices immediately.
1028
00:59:48.759 --> 00:59:54.321
As you go into the season, you're going to say, hey, everyone, here's your price for the upcoming season.
1029
00:59:54.621 --> 00:59:55.402
You're not going to say new.
1030
00:59:55.442 --> 00:59:56.382
Do not use the word new.
1031
00:59:56.762 --> 00:59:58.263
Here's your prices for the upcoming season.
1032
00:59:58.683 --> 01:00:01.684
Going forward, 3% is going to be charged for credit cards.
1033
01:00:01.764 --> 01:00:04.826
If you want to get around this, you can put your bank information on file.
1034
01:00:05.046 --> 01:00:05.646
Use this link.
1035
01:00:06.046 --> 01:00:09.428
You are not going to say new prices or a price increase or anything like that.
1036
01:00:09.748 --> 01:00:12.489
You're simply going to say, here's your prices for the 2026 season.
1037
01:00:12.729 --> 01:00:16.331
And the reason I need you to do that right away is because you are suffocating in front of cash.
1038
01:00:17.131 --> 01:00:18.131
and you are overwhelmed.
1039
01:00:18.391 --> 01:00:26.114
I need you to lose some customers going into the spring rush, and I need the customers that do stay for them to double in profit because you're going to raise prices by a minimum of 15%.
1040
01:00:26.174 --> 01:00:26.434
Okay.
1041
01:00:27.534 --> 01:00:28.075
Minimum.
1042
01:00:28.155 --> 01:00:29.495
Ideally, more like 20% or 25%.
1043
01:00:29.795 --> 01:00:31.996
But minimum, do not raise a 5%.
1044
01:00:32.376 --> 01:00:37.758
And this is why I would also say you might want to consider just raising it 18% and not doing the credit card fee thing.
1045
01:00:38.098 --> 01:00:38.418
Okay.
1046
01:00:38.978 --> 01:00:41.000
So just instead of like, you're like, Hey, I'll do 15%.
1047
01:00:41.040 --> 01:00:41.240
Great.
1048
01:00:41.440 --> 01:00:42.321
Why not just do 18%?
1049
01:00:42.501 --> 01:00:45.023
Cause like literally a dollar extra per cut.
1050
01:00:45.423 --> 01:00:49.527
And don't worry about the whole convincing people about the ACH thing.
1051
01:00:49.787 --> 01:00:52.009
Just be like, here's your up, your prices for the upcoming season.
1052
01:00:52.309 --> 01:00:52.669
Boom.
1053
01:00:53.090 --> 01:00:54.891
And just convince yourself to raise it 3% extra.
1054
01:00:56.032 --> 01:00:56.773
and eat the coffee.
1055
01:00:56.813 --> 01:00:58.454
Okay, that makes sense.
1056
01:00:58.474 --> 01:01:03.638
Yeah, it kind of takes a little bit out of what the customer should be doing.
1057
01:01:03.658 --> 01:01:09.663
It's like you said, like two different things that you're raising prices on, but if you just put it in there, maybe it looks a little bit better in the long run.
1058
01:01:09.683 --> 01:01:11.004
So, okay, cool.
1059
01:01:11.164 --> 01:01:12.185
Yeah, I would definitely do that.
1060
01:01:12.205 --> 01:01:12.345
Like,
1061
01:01:12.825 --> 01:01:17.467
One or two weeks before going into the spring rest, you're going to lose more customers than if you wait until what I said prior.
1062
01:01:17.827 --> 01:01:25.250
But I am – based upon what you said about budget hours and you feeling so scattered, we need more breathing room.
1063
01:01:25.670 --> 01:01:30.112
And so I'm not going to freak out if you lose 10 or 15 customers, but now your profit doubles.
1064
01:01:30.292 --> 01:01:30.572
Okay.
1065
01:01:30.912 --> 01:01:31.112
Right?
1066
01:01:31.373 --> 01:01:31.933
That sounds great.
1067
01:01:31.993 --> 01:01:32.213
Yeah.
1068
01:01:32.493 --> 01:01:33.114
All right, you're the man.
1069
01:01:33.134 --> 01:01:33.614
I appreciate it.
1070
01:01:33.994 --> 01:01:34.235
Thanks.
1071
01:01:34.255 --> 01:01:34.535
Got it.
1072
01:01:34.755 --> 01:01:35.376
Zach, you're up.
1073
01:01:35.736 --> 01:01:36.377
Hey, thanks, Mike.
1074
01:01:36.697 --> 01:01:40.060
Need some help in terms of maybe I'm just not thinking about this the right way.
1075
01:01:40.380 --> 01:01:43.263
I'm looking to make a change on our people who do our marketing.
1076
01:01:43.583 --> 01:01:47.126
As you know, we spend a good amount on marketing last year is about 4% of revenue.
1077
01:01:47.487 --> 01:01:54.853
And mainly, let's see, $46,000, 29 of that was direct ad spend on Facebook and Google.
1078
01:01:55.194 --> 01:01:56.275
So what was the rest?
1079
01:01:56.735 --> 01:01:57.836
Vast amount.
1080
01:01:57.896 --> 01:02:02.098
The rest was a mix of basically paying our people to run the ads.
1081
01:02:02.559 --> 01:02:07.642
It was that we had a website, like a two-year website agreement, SEO, that's the rest.
1082
01:02:07.882 --> 01:02:20.870
So first thing is we are going to take a little bit of a step back, not a little bit, a big step back on our direct ad spin and may focus more on our current customers that we have inside Copilot, have over a thousand emails in there that we're not tapping into enough.
1083
01:02:21.590 --> 01:02:27.394
But in terms of our outgoing marketing, I have a proposal in front of me here from a group that does a lot with landscape companies.
1084
01:02:28.115 --> 01:02:31.597
It's about $50,000 a year, $50,000, $60,000 a year.
1085
01:02:32.958 --> 01:02:35.740
But it's going to be a lot more than just Facebook ads.
1086
01:02:36.141 --> 01:02:43.686
So it's focusing more on content and kind of just a full circle marketing rather than just one avenue.
1087
01:02:44.406 --> 01:02:48.549
Am I spending too much if we're going to stay around that 4%?
1088
01:02:48.589 --> 01:02:48.929
Yeah.
1089
01:02:49.270 --> 01:02:49.470
Yeah.
1090
01:02:49.770 --> 01:02:49.970
Yes.
1091
01:02:50.350 --> 01:02:52.411
What's their actual ad spend going to be out of the 50 grand?
1092
01:02:52.731 --> 01:02:54.532
Out of the 50 grand, 12,000.
1093
01:02:55.033 --> 01:02:56.213
Everything else will include...
1094
01:02:56.693 --> 01:02:57.194
Sorry, say what?
1095
01:02:57.754 --> 01:02:58.854
Yeah, it's nothing.
1096
01:02:59.515 --> 01:03:00.655
They're making good margin on this.
1097
01:03:00.895 --> 01:03:08.399
So I would strongly advise against that package.
1098
01:03:08.439 --> 01:03:11.380
80% is being wrapped up in management.
1099
01:03:11.640 --> 01:03:13.061
Like almost 80%, like 75 plus percent, right?
1100
01:03:13.081 --> 01:03:13.181
Sure.
1101
01:03:13.201 --> 01:03:13.301
Sure.
1102
01:03:15.562 --> 01:03:20.706
Anything more than about 30% in management is straight margin for an agency.
1103
01:03:22.027 --> 01:03:30.334
Things like content, AI is so good at this stuff, especially because they're going to take, are they using your content or are they using someone else's or they generate it?
1104
01:03:30.574 --> 01:03:35.998
No, this includes four full days of filming and photos with our guys.
1105
01:03:36.618 --> 01:03:43.844
And there's a bunch of different line items on here, but it would be, they come out and they make our personalized content.
1106
01:03:44.104 --> 01:03:58.801
Yeah, like in my opinion, well, not in my opinion, based upon what we do at Augusta, if someone takes an iPhone out of their pocket and takes a picture of their team, that will get more views on social media than our professional 15-person media team taking photos.
1107
01:03:59.202 --> 01:04:01.585
And so in my opinion, you beat this –
1108
01:04:02.105 --> 01:04:04.567
beats this $50,000 thing by doing two things.
1109
01:04:04.847 --> 01:04:08.870
One, taking pictures and video yourself for maybe 10 to 15 minutes a week.
1110
01:04:09.250 --> 01:04:10.531
Like that's all it is required.
1111
01:04:10.551 --> 01:04:14.374
It's like, or your crew, you could literally pay your crew five bucks for good photos.
1112
01:04:14.614 --> 01:04:17.396
We used to do this out back in the day for our team.
1113
01:04:17.557 --> 01:04:22.760
We had, uh, they would submit photos, the team chat, and then we would give a hundred dollars away a month to the best photo of the month.
1114
01:04:23.021 --> 01:04:28.465
And we've got like 20 to 40 photos that were really good on the field and they outperform professional photos by far.
1115
01:04:29.025 --> 01:04:29.345
By far.
1116
01:04:29.706 --> 01:04:36.213
And then the second thing is you go on Upwork and you're going to get a professional to do your Facebook or your Upwork or your Google ads.
1117
01:04:36.513 --> 01:04:38.655
And you're going to spend about $500 to $1,000 a month for the best of the best.
1118
01:04:41.459 --> 01:04:42.740
not an addition to- You said Upwork?
1119
01:04:43.361 --> 01:04:45.282
Yeah, Upwork, you're gonna find freelancers.
1120
01:04:45.562 --> 01:04:51.647
You're gonna pay between 100 to $200 an hour, but they only need to manage your account for about an hour a week.
1121
01:04:51.967 --> 01:04:52.708
It doesn't take a lot.
1122
01:04:53.048 --> 01:04:57.972
And so you're gonna find like the best of the best Facebook person, the best of the best Google person on there.
1123
01:04:58.673 --> 01:05:04.057
And then they're gonna get the ads up and running, but more importantly, they're gonna tell you what they're doing because they're incentivized to work for you.
1124
01:05:04.357 --> 01:05:09.982
Not this like very holistic $50,000 package, where you're getting a lot of stuff.
1125
01:05:10.282 --> 01:05:14.585
It's hard for you to actually measure the performance of the $50,000.
1126
01:05:15.045 --> 01:05:23.231
And so what I would rather you do is, first off, I'd rather give your team five grand over the course of the year for really good pictures and videos before and afters.
1127
01:05:23.412 --> 01:05:28.815
You'll have hundreds of photos, and I guarantee you they will outperform professional photography and professional videos.
1128
01:05:28.855 --> 01:05:34.440
Like if you look at my content, go through the thing of the stuff that's professional versus the stuff that I just take with my camera.
1129
01:05:35.060 --> 01:05:39.043
Five to ten times more engagement will be on the ones where I just take random photos of myself.
1130
01:05:39.403 --> 01:05:44.389
It'll perform better, and more importantly, you'll have the extra money to go spend on ad budget.
1131
01:05:44.789 --> 01:05:48.654
I would rather you spend $24,000 on ad budget, i.e.
1132
01:05:48.694 --> 01:05:52.398
double, and spend maybe $5,000 or $10,000 on management.
1133
01:05:52.578 --> 01:05:54.080
And that's what you can do if you use Upwork.
1134
01:05:54.360 --> 01:05:54.601
Okay.
1135
01:05:54.901 --> 01:05:55.421
No, thank you.
1136
01:05:56.027 --> 01:05:56.708
Yeah, absolutely.
1137
01:05:56.728 --> 01:05:57.088
You got it.
1138
01:05:57.908 --> 01:05:59.089
Matthew's up next again.
1139
01:05:59.109 --> 01:06:05.815
Hey, um, a question on like, uh, how, how to set things up to where the team is properly incentivized.
1140
01:06:05.835 --> 01:06:11.139
Um, so right now we, we do a production pay, but there's like a base basically.
1141
01:06:11.319 --> 01:06:14.061
So people know they're going to get at least this much every week.
1142
01:06:14.501 --> 01:06:21.867
And then if they outperform, you know, their expectations, then they, they get a bonus and that could be anywhere from a hundred dollars to $600 in a, in a week.
1143
01:06:22.127 --> 01:06:24.649
Um, but what I'm noticing, all right, so we kind of have
1144
01:06:25.029 --> 01:06:26.691
three different categories we keep track of things on.
1145
01:06:26.711 --> 01:06:35.319
You have your general KPIs, you have this list of daily duties that need to get done, and then obviously, you know, no callbacks, like customer satisfaction.
1146
01:06:35.479 --> 01:06:40.424
Seems like everybody's performing well, like they're hitting the KPIs, customers are happy,
1147
01:06:40.864 --> 01:06:49.549
But all the little daily things that need to be done properly, you know, proper reports, proper pictures, filling out an estimate properly.
1148
01:06:49.850 --> 01:06:53.832
If there's certain items on there that needs a special part, make sure you communicate with me.
1149
01:06:53.852 --> 01:06:58.055
You know, all these little details seem to get passed over.
1150
01:06:58.415 --> 01:06:59.856
And I'll remind people.
1151
01:07:00.596 --> 01:07:11.127
And it still happens, you know, should I or is it even legal to attach bonuses to proper performance in the week?
1152
01:07:11.700 --> 01:07:12.301
You know what I mean?
1153
01:07:12.441 --> 01:07:20.509
Like, like, Hey, if you don't successfully complete your list of daily duties, you don't unlock your bonus.
1154
01:07:20.950 --> 01:07:28.437
Um, is that something like that allowed or what would you recommend to just have these guys actually doing everything that needs to be done?
1155
01:07:28.617 --> 01:07:32.922
And I'm not having to remind them in the morning when I'm sitting on the computer reviewing the previous day.
1156
01:07:33.202 --> 01:07:38.045
Yeah, it's like, look, if you don't perform these tasks, you do not get anything above your base pay.
1157
01:07:38.365 --> 01:07:48.330
And your base pay, as long as your employee handbook is only stating that they make this amount, which is their base pay, everything else you give them as bonuses is all on you.
1158
01:07:48.370 --> 01:07:50.731
Like, you got to report it as income, and they got to pay taxes on it.
1159
01:07:52.092 --> 01:07:53.273
you don't promise them.
1160
01:07:53.533 --> 01:07:59.036
Even the job description don't say like, it's $20 an hour plus X amount per week on bonuses.
1161
01:07:59.056 --> 01:07:59.736
You can't say that.
1162
01:08:00.076 --> 01:08:04.838
You say it's X amount as your base and you're able to make more based upon performance.
1163
01:08:04.878 --> 01:08:11.902
You gotta just be careful to not guarantee or promise that money, because it needs to be completely based upon whether or not they perform.
1164
01:08:12.222 --> 01:08:15.304
And you can just have it where it's like, hey, this is how much you made in a bonus, great.
1165
01:08:15.564 --> 01:08:19.946
But there's this one question, it's a yes or no question, and it's a qualifier as to whether or not you even get it.
1166
01:08:20.126 --> 01:08:21.627
And that's whether or not you did these tasks.
1167
01:08:22.027 --> 01:08:28.913
And I would only do that in the event where they have to be 99.99% of the time able to do it.
1168
01:08:29.173 --> 01:08:32.956
Like, just don't make it where, like, if they miss one thing, they lose $1,000.
1169
01:08:32.996 --> 01:08:38.361
Like, then they're going to think that you're just being, you know, maniacal or just a little crazy on it.
1170
01:08:38.661 --> 01:08:39.241
Sure, sure.
1171
01:08:39.562 --> 01:08:43.465
I mean, outside of that, though, I mean, these guys are performing well and nice.
1172
01:08:43.485 --> 01:08:46.647
But it just seems like they're like, oh, yeah, I'll get to that before I head home.
1173
01:08:46.768 --> 01:08:47.168
And then they do.
1174
01:08:47.428 --> 01:08:47.908
Don't do it.
1175
01:08:48.049 --> 01:08:48.989
And I mess with him the next morning.
1176
01:08:49.089 --> 01:08:49.770
Oh, I'm so sorry.
1177
01:08:49.790 --> 01:08:50.210
I forgot.
1178
01:08:50.570 --> 01:08:52.491
But that will happen 12 times in three months.
1179
01:08:52.551 --> 01:08:56.014
And it's just like, come on, like I shouldn't have to micromanage you.
1180
01:08:56.494 --> 01:08:57.315
Um, or am I wrong?
1181
01:08:57.335 --> 01:08:58.755
Like, is that just a part of the game?
1182
01:08:58.795 --> 01:09:02.218
Like you're just having to, you know, babysit people every once in a while.
1183
01:09:03.378 --> 01:09:04.399
Yeah.
1184
01:09:04.699 --> 01:09:06.861
I typically like you to care instead of a sick, right?
1185
01:09:06.921 --> 01:09:09.082
So the stick is you do not get your bonus.
1186
01:09:09.703 --> 01:09:12.424
If you do not get these things done, will you get compliance?
1187
01:09:12.724 --> 01:09:12.985
Yes.
1188
01:09:13.005 --> 01:09:13.485
Okay.
1189
01:09:13.700 --> 01:09:13.900
Right.
1190
01:09:13.920 --> 01:09:15.781
So like, that's where most people go immediately.
1191
01:09:16.321 --> 01:09:23.445
You can also use the carrot approach, which is, Hey, if you do all these things, your bonus gets increased by 10% automatically.
1192
01:09:23.625 --> 01:09:24.385
I would do that.
1193
01:09:24.905 --> 01:09:26.786
Now, no one's thinking you're a mean person.
1194
01:09:26.806 --> 01:09:28.727
They just want to get it done so they can make more money.
1195
01:09:28.987 --> 01:09:33.790
Same exact thing, by the way, just incentivize it versus being corrective.
1196
01:09:34.010 --> 01:09:34.210
Yeah.
1197
01:09:34.430 --> 01:09:34.830
I like it.
1198
01:09:35.130 --> 01:09:35.390
Awesome.
1199
01:09:35.410 --> 01:09:35.931
Thank you very much.
1200
01:09:36.191 --> 01:09:36.511
Got it.
1201
01:09:36.691 --> 01:09:37.211
All right.
1202
01:09:37.291 --> 01:09:38.312
Lawn care monster.
1203
01:09:38.332 --> 01:09:38.692
Go ahead.
1204
01:09:38.932 --> 01:09:40.813
Quick question about raising the prices again.
1205
01:09:40.833 --> 01:09:45.775
I have a few subdivisions that one subdivision I have about nine customers in there.
1206
01:09:46.495 --> 01:09:48.516
One subdivision I have about eight.
1207
01:09:48.916 --> 01:09:51.237
And it's kind of like the route density.
1208
01:09:51.517 --> 01:09:52.357
There are different days.
1209
01:09:52.497 --> 01:09:54.838
One's for Thursday and one's for Friday.
1210
01:09:55.078 --> 01:09:57.659
Would you recommend raising those prices?
1211
01:09:58.019 --> 01:10:05.321
Because on those, it's kind of like you make a lot of money there when you can just drop your truck and just go around and do all those.
1212
01:10:05.761 --> 01:10:07.921
Would you risk wanting to lose those?
1213
01:10:08.362 --> 01:10:17.004
I know it sounds like a silly question, but like those is like, I can do those in an hour and almost do like nine houses all at one time, you know, versus-
1214
01:10:17.784 --> 01:10:20.906
Of your 90 clients, how many are of that caliber?
1215
01:10:21.267 --> 01:10:22.448
I had to go through and look.
1216
01:10:22.668 --> 01:10:26.191
Like some of them, like my Monday routes is pretty full.
1217
01:10:26.811 --> 01:10:30.054
Like I can, my Monday routes is probably, I can hit that.
1218
01:10:30.694 --> 01:10:32.916
I really don't have a subdivision.
1219
01:10:32.956 --> 01:10:37.019
The only subdivisions I have is like the one on Thursdays and ones on Fridays.
1220
01:10:37.519 --> 01:10:40.101
As a function of percent, if you had to guess.
1221
01:10:40.241 --> 01:10:42.443
Probably 20%, maybe.
1222
01:10:42.683 --> 01:10:44.285
So maybe it may be a little high too.
1223
01:10:44.905 --> 01:10:48.229
So if you really want, you know, we're talking about 15 customers here.
1224
01:10:48.509 --> 01:10:51.954
So if you really want to not raise price on them, okay, that's fine.
1225
01:10:52.234 --> 01:10:57.220
Do I think you should raise across the board because you're stressed, overwhelmed, and feel scattered?
1226
01:10:57.340 --> 01:10:57.620
Yes.
1227
01:10:57.861 --> 01:11:03.688
So also your best customers are usually the ones that have more money, are higher value, and see the most value in your service.
1228
01:11:04.148 --> 01:11:08.492
Everyone thinks like, oh, no, like those are my best customers because I can make more money on them.
1229
01:11:08.772 --> 01:11:11.334
They're probably your best customers because they accept services.
1230
01:11:11.434 --> 01:11:12.696
They don't give you any problems.
1231
01:11:13.116 --> 01:11:16.479
And because the reason they do that is because they see a whole bunch of value in your service.
1232
01:11:16.819 --> 01:11:22.244
And so I'm much more of the opinion you raise prices across the board, especially because your budget hours are all over the place.
1233
01:11:22.484 --> 01:11:24.266
You know, you have been tracking those accurately.
1234
01:11:24.466 --> 01:11:26.688
Like I would just look at 90 and raise the prices.
1235
01:11:26.708 --> 01:11:28.509
But if you're like, I don't know, great.
1236
01:11:28.629 --> 01:11:35.615
Raise the 65 or 75 that are not those high caliber clients and lose 10 of those.
1237
01:11:35.676 --> 01:11:38.478
And then when you get hit capacity, then maybe raise price on the rest of them.
1238
01:11:38.558 --> 01:11:38.898
Okay.
1239
01:11:39.238 --> 01:11:41.379
But you're a big fan of all the way across the board, no matter what.
1240
01:11:41.519 --> 01:11:42.119
Make more money.
1241
01:11:42.199 --> 01:11:42.620
Okay.
1242
01:11:42.940 --> 01:11:49.942
You know, old customers in the CRM, like as far as in, you know, we have their contact information, like they may be two or three years old.
1243
01:11:50.002 --> 01:11:58.585
At what point in time would you say that it would, I mean, were you, should you always reach out to those customers and send, you know, emails to try to gain, to get business or whatever?
1244
01:11:58.666 --> 01:12:02.467
Is there a certain amount of time that you would say that you would kind of remove them from the system?
1245
01:12:02.767 --> 01:12:05.429
I keep them in the system until they tell me to remove them.
1246
01:12:05.669 --> 01:12:08.852
The reason is because it doesn't cost you any more to send an email to them.
1247
01:12:09.392 --> 01:12:16.898
And even once down the road when we start charging for text, let's say it's three or four cents, we're talking about of 100 of those, it's going to cost you three or four bucks.
1248
01:12:17.579 --> 01:12:24.344
So that's, of course, the question becomes over the next 10 years, as you send 100 text messages, will they accept one time?
1249
01:12:24.584 --> 01:12:25.265
Pretty good chance.
1250
01:12:25.285 --> 01:12:25.445
Yeah.
1251
01:12:25.565 --> 01:12:32.070
A lot of our customers who click on our one-click estimate emails or respond to our texts, we haven't done service for over 12 months.
1252
01:12:32.110 --> 01:12:35.612
We did this report, and my location is very manual.
1253
01:12:35.972 --> 01:12:39.575
It was like, when people respond to a text message, when was the last time we did service?
1254
01:12:39.735 --> 01:12:42.157
Most of them haven't done services for 12-plus months.
1255
01:12:42.537 --> 01:12:53.405
And so the whole objective when you're building and scaling your contact database is that eventually you don't have to spend any more money on marketing for new leads, but you can only do that if you keep the leads in your database warm.
1256
01:12:53.985 --> 01:12:56.346
as soon as they go cold, they're not worth anything.
1257
01:12:56.386 --> 01:13:03.889
There are times when you sell your business, the warmth of that contact list is a huge proponent of valuation in my opinion.
1258
01:13:04.190 --> 01:13:15.555
Because if I can get 5,000 of your contacts and immediately go send them a text message and get 20 recurring customers and $50,000 worth of one-time projects, I could buy your whole business and pay for it within a matter of a couple months.
1259
01:13:15.955 --> 01:13:19.796
And so I would absolutely keep them in the system unless they ask to be removed.
1260
01:13:20.037 --> 01:13:20.297
Okay.
1261
01:13:20.717 --> 01:13:22.318
And then also I was gonna ask,
1262
01:13:23.338 --> 01:13:25.539
You know, we've never ran any Google ads.
1263
01:13:25.559 --> 01:13:28.759
So we're probably sitting around, you know, right around five, 600,000.
1264
01:13:28.939 --> 01:13:31.180
We've never ran any Google ads or anything like that.
1265
01:13:31.200 --> 01:13:33.601
So you would suggest to start that with Upworks.
1266
01:13:33.961 --> 01:13:34.581
Well, okay.
1267
01:13:34.921 --> 01:13:36.741
So you're asking, should you start doing Google ads?
1268
01:13:36.761 --> 01:13:37.441
Is that what you're asking?
1269
01:13:37.882 --> 01:13:41.302
Well, I mean, we want to get to, you know, a million plus dollars.
1270
01:13:41.362 --> 01:13:43.943
I mean, right now it's kind of like the opposite.
1271
01:13:43.963 --> 01:13:45.623
I'm like, we have a lot of cash right now.
1272
01:13:45.923 --> 01:13:47.364
How many people are in your database right now?
1273
01:13:47.944 --> 01:13:49.284
Probably around 1,500.
1274
01:13:49.644 --> 01:13:49.964
Okay.
1275
01:13:50.044 --> 01:13:51.745
And are you sending out texts each month?
1276
01:13:52.265 --> 01:14:01.430
Well, I did one time and then I got a bunch back and then it's kind of like, okay, now I'm running around to these properties trying to do an estimate and then not really getting anything approved from it.
1277
01:14:01.490 --> 01:14:05.692
Maybe one person approves, but everybody says, yeah, I want an estimate.
1278
01:14:05.912 --> 01:14:13.556
And then you go and you're wasting time going to the property to ride by it or whatever to give them an estimate and then they're not really getting accepted.
1279
01:14:13.916 --> 01:14:15.318
Okay, yeah, so two things.
1280
01:14:15.498 --> 01:14:22.525
First off, when it comes to the text message, you will want to only go after pain because otherwise there's no real reason for them to accept.
1281
01:14:23.045 --> 01:14:25.408
So for example, snow, that's why it worked well.
1282
01:14:26.288 --> 01:14:27.690
Windstorms works well.
1283
01:14:28.070 --> 01:14:32.294
Christmas, like you want to have a reason and with urgency and scarcity around the text message.
1284
01:14:32.835 --> 01:14:33.676
Otherwise it is like,
1285
01:14:33.876 --> 01:14:34.336
Yeah, sure.
1286
01:14:34.356 --> 01:14:35.236
I'll have an estimate.
1287
01:14:35.536 --> 01:14:37.677
I don't really need anything done, but sure, go for it.
1288
01:14:38.117 --> 01:14:38.337
Right.
1289
01:14:38.557 --> 01:14:43.719
So that's one side note, I would say, around how just to do the text in that fashion.
1290
01:14:43.999 --> 01:14:47.099
When it comes to advertising, have you already got a website, Patrick?
1291
01:14:47.640 --> 01:14:47.940
Yes.
1292
01:14:48.680 --> 01:14:48.960
Okay.
1293
01:14:49.080 --> 01:14:52.041
And is that optimized with conversion and stuff?
1294
01:14:52.321 --> 01:14:55.782
Yeah, that's where most of our clients come from.
1295
01:14:55.802 --> 01:14:57.222
That and Google My Business.
1296
01:14:57.582 --> 01:14:57.822
Cool.
1297
01:14:57.882 --> 01:14:59.143
How many Google reviews you have now?
1298
01:15:00.504 --> 01:15:00.904
Almost 100.
1299
01:15:00.924 --> 01:15:01.245
Cool.
1300
01:15:01.565 --> 01:15:02.245
All right.
1301
01:15:02.325 --> 01:15:04.727
And have you spent anything on ads at all or not?
1302
01:15:05.187 --> 01:15:05.548
Nothing.
1303
01:15:05.568 --> 01:15:06.928
We've never spent anything on it.
1304
01:15:07.089 --> 01:15:10.371
I mean, we do like a magazine miller that's like $450 per month.
1305
01:15:12.162 --> 01:15:15.124
Yeah, so I would start first with your Google local services ads.
1306
01:15:15.604 --> 01:15:16.885
Don't start with Google ads itself.
1307
01:15:17.386 --> 01:15:19.307
LSA, it's called local services ads.
1308
01:15:19.667 --> 01:15:24.611
That's gonna be your best cost per lead, depending on your market, probably between 20 and 30 bucks per lead.
1309
01:15:25.211 --> 01:15:29.775
It's really high quality, gets a recorded phone call, or you see the chat, like, it's really good.
1310
01:15:30.475 --> 01:15:30.955
Start there.
1311
01:15:31.356 --> 01:15:33.918
It's not going to be – you're not going to be able to dump a lot of money into it though.
1312
01:15:34.278 --> 01:15:35.619
So then I would go to Google Ads.
1313
01:15:36.240 --> 01:15:41.604
And again, you should not spend more than $400 or $500 a month for someone to manage it.
1314
01:15:41.944 --> 01:15:53.353
But if you have the cash and you can spend $400 or $500 a month on ad spend, it's likely that just doing the LSA and that and spending a little bit of ads will get you to the million-dollar marker.
1315
01:15:53.513 --> 01:15:56.555
So you would start with LSA and then go move to Google Ads.
1316
01:15:56.715 --> 01:15:59.457
I mean, would you use Upwork to let someone do that?
1317
01:15:59.477 --> 01:16:02.378
I mean, I really don't know what's going on with the Google Ads.
1318
01:16:02.498 --> 01:16:03.819
So to be honest.
1319
01:16:04.119 --> 01:16:09.143
Yeah, go into Upwork and you're going to be able to look at people's accounts of all the reviews that they've done services.
1320
01:16:09.563 --> 01:16:11.624
I'm not getting the cheapest person from me personally.
1321
01:16:11.644 --> 01:16:13.885
If they're over $100 an hour, I don't touch them.
1322
01:16:14.166 --> 01:16:16.107
I pay people $600 an hour on Upwork.
1323
01:16:16.787 --> 01:16:19.748
Um, but I'm trying to download their information of what they know.
1324
01:16:20.328 --> 01:16:21.548
And I, they're my employee.
1325
01:16:21.588 --> 01:16:22.929
It's not like a contracting business.
1326
01:16:23.389 --> 01:16:26.030
Like Zach was talking about where they're going to kind of keep everything away from you.
1327
01:16:26.270 --> 01:16:28.970
And there's going to this magic black box of stuff happening.
1328
01:16:29.470 --> 01:16:30.571
I want to know what's going on.
1329
01:16:30.591 --> 01:16:35.372
So I require when I go get someone up work, I say, Hey, I want a video at least once a month.
1330
01:16:35.492 --> 01:16:38.913
And I want you to show everything in my account via screen recording of what you're doing.
1331
01:16:39.413 --> 01:16:40.614
Because I want to know what's happening.
1332
01:16:40.935 --> 01:16:43.557
That's the difference between getting someone Upwork versus an agency.
1333
01:16:43.797 --> 01:16:45.279
An agency is not going to tell you what they're doing.
1334
01:16:45.359 --> 01:16:50.784
They're not going to tell you what keywords they're changing, what the targeting is changing, what they're tweaking in the back end.
1335
01:16:50.945 --> 01:16:53.387
Because that's their secret sauce that they want to keep you tied to.
1336
01:16:53.727 --> 01:16:55.529
Whereas someone at Upwork, they're charging you for their time.
1337
01:16:55.549 --> 01:16:55.990
They don't care.
1338
01:16:56.010 --> 01:16:58.652
Do you do the same thing with SEO for a website?
1339
01:16:58.672 --> 01:16:58.773
Yeah.
1340
01:17:00.634 --> 01:17:04.638
If anyone's charging you more than a couple hundred bucks a month for SEO, they're overcharging you.
1341
01:17:05.098 --> 01:17:07.300
SEO needs to be tweaked maybe one to three times a year.
1342
01:17:07.900 --> 01:17:10.703
It is not something that needs to be adjusted a lot.
1343
01:17:11.343 --> 01:17:13.745
At Home Service Web Design, we do it once a quarter.
1344
01:17:15.267 --> 01:17:16.988
So I know what the costs are on SEO.
1345
01:17:17.168 --> 01:17:17.689
It's not big.
1346
01:17:18.609 --> 01:17:22.812
If someone's saying it's like, oh, we're doing all these keywords and tags, like they're blowing up smoke.
1347
01:17:22.852 --> 01:17:24.574
Like it's not, it's not true.
1348
01:17:25.214 --> 01:17:33.800
And also with AI, it's very much less and less is going to be emphasized on keywords and much more around are people satisfied when they get to a website.
1349
01:17:33.820 --> 01:17:35.642
Like the design is going to mean everything.
1350
01:17:36.562 --> 01:17:42.667
Back in the old days, you could kind of convince Google that you're a good site by using keywords and a bunch of tags and all this stuff.
1351
01:17:43.127 --> 01:17:52.754
That's out the window with AI because AI knows if someone gets to your site and actually submits an investment request form, if they actually liked the site and stayed on it for two or three minutes versus seeing it for one second and bouncing off.
1352
01:17:52.995 --> 01:17:56.137
And so a lot of things in the past around SEO is a lot of it's –
1353
01:17:56.897 --> 01:17:57.217
useless.
1354
01:17:57.237 --> 01:17:59.238
It's around, is the customer satisfied?
1355
01:17:59.398 --> 01:18:03.220
Is the people searching for the website satisfied and actually taking action?
1356
01:18:03.600 --> 01:18:07.582
And so it's much more a game now with AI of answering questions.
1357
01:18:07.963 --> 01:18:12.845
Like you'll see an Augusta site coming out in the next couple of weeks, like having FAQs, very positive.
1358
01:18:13.085 --> 01:18:16.226
We'll outperform a blog every day of the week.
1359
01:18:16.806 --> 01:18:22.207
Posting images to your Google My Business page or Google listing every single two or three days.
1360
01:18:22.567 --> 01:18:25.428
Just keeping the content consistently going there with pictures.
1361
01:18:25.808 --> 01:18:28.308
Just like you would to Facebook, you should be doing to Google listing.
1362
01:18:29.028 --> 01:18:35.130
Those are way bigger levers than like someone moving tags and keywords and hyperlinks on the back end of SEO.
1363
01:18:35.570 --> 01:18:36.610
They're just taking money from you.
1364
01:18:36.930 --> 01:18:37.231
Okay.
1365
01:18:37.471 --> 01:18:46.929
So with Upwork, I mean, in the Google AdWords, I guess there's a way that you can give, you know, the person on Upwork their own login so you can manage that, right?
1366
01:18:46.949 --> 01:18:47.089
Yep.
1367
01:18:47.129 --> 01:18:48.993
And they'll walk you through that.
1368
01:18:50.228 --> 01:18:54.296
And what's cool is on Upwork, if they're malicious, you can leave a bad review for them.
1369
01:18:54.376 --> 01:18:55.919
So like they want to do a good job.
1370
01:18:55.939 --> 01:18:57.081
They're running it like a business.
1371
01:18:57.402 --> 01:18:58.364
They want to do a good job.
1372
01:18:58.384 --> 01:18:59.486
So you leave a good review.
1373
01:19:00.468 --> 01:19:05.036
And so you can go on and see hundreds of other people that have done work for them and said if they have done that or not.
1374
01:19:05.397 --> 01:19:06.219
So fantastic.
1375
01:19:06.399 --> 01:19:06.740
We'll see you.
1376
01:19:07.020 --> 01:19:07.301
Take care.